


It's Just a Scratch

by Adora_McClain



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Langst, Lesbian Sex, Violence, femKlance, protective keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23424286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adora_McClain/pseuds/Adora_McClain
Summary: The Garrison is one of the biggest survivor camps in America, next to the Galra. It spans ten city blocks, with walls protecting the town from what the world had become. The lifeline to the camp were the Runners, a group of survivors crazy enough to venture back out into the zombie-infested world to get supplies.And just as Keith's luck would have it, Lance McClain was in her squadron. Just because they fucked did not mean they got along, it just meant it was the end of the world and options were limited.However, when out on a dangerous Run through Galra territory for medical supplies, Keith finds that Lance's optimistic outlook on life might be more refreshing than annoying.Keith finds it odd that every time the idiot McClain is in danger, she seems to freak out, and is always the first one to pull Lance from the fire, or, the Biters.Maybe they were more than just 'Enemies with Benefits'.Maybe... they did make a good team.(Fem!Keith) (Fem!Lance) (Everyone else is the same gender.)
Relationships: FemKlance - Relationship, Klance - Relationship, Zombie apocalypse - Relationship, enemies to lovers - Relationship, slow burn - Relationship
Comments: 43
Kudos: 64





	1. Enemies With Benefits

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, yet another gay apocalypse story because we're living through the apocalypse right now, so... 
> 
> However in this story Lance and Keith are woman! Please enjoy and tell me what you think in the comments. 
> 
> Also, if you're into Klance apgocoplyps, Campphalfgalra has a really good one called "To build a home (with you)" so you guys should really go check it out and leave a Kudos! Heres the link! https://archiveofourown.org/works/23006221/chapters/55007332#workskin 
> 
> Please enjoy.. (And yes, I know the name 'CutieAtTheKeyBord' with 'keyboard' spelled incorrectly is an incredibly stupid name, but we're committed.)

Just because they were screwing did not mean that Keith liked Lance. In fact, let me rephrase, she would not stand Lance. 

She was still the most annoying bitch to ever survive the end of the world. 

But it was the literal apocalypse, and Keith would be an idiot to ignore the fact that Lance was the hottest person by far in their survival camp, and Keith just happened to be just about one of the only dykes around, so, here they were. 

When the apocalypse gives you lemons, I guess. 

Lance had long, tanned legs, and a soft, smiling face that seemed to brighten up the horrible events of what daily life had become. She had long, waving hair, and needed no makeup as she radiated beauty. The only problem was her soft, brown lips could talk. Seriously, did this girl have an off switch? 

“Think about it like ‘enemies with benefits.’” Lance had said once, describing it perfectly. 

“Calling it whatever the fuck you want.” Keith had responded, walking out of her bedroom and not giving the girl a second glance. Lance pretend that it didn’t hurt. 

Still, despite the fact that Keith would find her way into Lance’s bed just about every night, she still could not stand the girl and her childish ways. It was like the world was a big joke to her, like they were living in a big video game with unlimited lives. It was almost like she had never seen anyone die. 

It was like Lance refused to admit that the world was terrible and life sucked. She treated everyday like it was fucking sunshine and rainbows. How could she just ignore the fact that everyone she’s ever loved was a walking corpse. 

It burned Keith up inside that she could be happy in the world of which she lived. Maybe she was just jealous, but nonetheless, it angered her to no end. Lance couldn’t even take the end of the world seriously. 

Keith loathed the fact that she was a Runner, and just as her shit luck would have it, in her squadron too! Lance skipped, and I mean actually skipped through the woods when their team made supply runs, like she was a Disney freaking princess. She splashed in puddles while they made their way through horrific, abandoned cities, and Keith still swears to god that she saw her do it when they were outrunning a pack of biters. She would climb trees when they were pitching tents, and one time she made an honest slip and slide through the isles of an abandoned grocery store using dish soap.

Okay, fine, so that one had been pretty fun… but still! 

“Shiro, she’s gonna get herself killed one of these days!” Keith had ranted as she tried to keep up the pace with the large man as he walked in long strides down the sidewalk of the camp. “Or worse, me!” she winned. 

“Keith,” Shiro said without turning his head to face the girl, “I am not taking Lance off of tomorrow's Run, she’s the best shot we have,” he said. 

“But-” 

“No, I am not taking your girlfriend off of an important mission because you don’t like her. I’m sorry Keith but you’re going to have to deal with it. Now get some rest for tomorrow or I’ll put you on Wall Duty for the rest of the week.” He said, walking up the steps to a small house to go over their Run tomorrow with the other Heads. 

“You’ve gone mad with power since you became a Head, Shiro!” She called after him as he walked up the stairs, ignoring her. “And that air head is not my girlfriend!” She screamed, rolling her eyes because she wasn't sure if she would survive three days in the woods with Leocadia McLain and her big, fat mouth. 

……… 

The sun set lazily in the sky, igniting everything in a haze of orange that bounced off of the town's walls. 

The walls spanned ten city blocks, containing a big chunk of a forest, even having a river flowing through it they could sometimes fish from. The Garrison was one of the most sought after survival camps in America, with it housing just about anyone who happened to make it to their walls alive and unbitten. 

Needless to say, they didn’t get a lot of newcomers… 

People scarcely survived outside of the walls, though there were a few smaller camps, similar to The Garrison in the sense that they were just ordinary towns with big walls surrounding them. Still, just Keith’s luck, she ended up in the same camp as Lance. 

Not to mention that they were both Runners, meaning that, as much as Keith hated it, they lived in the same house with the rest of the squadron. Although, it was convenient for the night time… 

Houses were divided up amongst families and workers. If you were unmarried or didn’t have any kids, you lived with your coworkers. There were five houses devoted to cooks, nine for Wall Guards, two for cleaners, that kind of thing. 

But only three were for Runners. They were harder to comeby, as once you were safely inside of the walls, not too many people wanted to venture out. 

“I-I don’t know about this…” Hunk said from the sidewalk and Lance and Pidge, another Runner, tried to push the man into the house. 95595959595

Hunk had previously been a cook, but due to his giant muscles and tall figure, The Garrison decided he would be better use as a Runner. They had obviously never met the guy… 

“Come on, Hunk!” Lance said, “you’ll be fine! Me and Pidge will be there with you the whole time tomorrow!” 

“Yeah!” Pidge said, “and you passed all of your entrance exams! Everything will be okay, now come unpack! You’re with us now.” 

“Yeah…” Hunk breathed. “Y-you’re probably right, I-I can do this,” he said, grabbing his suitcase and hesitantly walking towards the house.

“Only difference is that zombie’s bite back, unlike in the entrance exams.” Kieth had said in passing, and she gave Hunk a pat on the back before making her way up the stairs. “Hopefully we don’t run into a pack of them, you know, like we did last week…” 

Hunk went pale, and Keith laughed as the man began saying a series of “No, no, no, nope…” before making a beeline down the street, Pidge rolling her eyes around in her head before chasing after him, muttering a quick “thanks a lot Kieth,” before doing so. 

“You’re such an asshole.” Lance said, scowling at her.

Keith just shrugged. “Tell me something I don’t know, and the guys gotta learn eventually. If he runs like that at the first sign of trouble then we’re all gonna be screwed tomorrow.” 

“Why don't you just worry about yourself, Mullet.” She bit. 

“Glady, Princess.” Keith said, hitting her with her shoulder as she pushed past her and through the door. 

Lance rolled her eyes, wondering how someone could be so great in bed yet so terrible in person. But it’s not like Lance was swimming in options in a tiny survival camp during the literal end of the world. She sighed, chasing Hunk down the street along with Pidge. “Hunk, come on buddy!” She called after him as she ran.

……. 

They had managed to talk Hunk of the edge enough to set him up in the spare bed in Pidge’s room. Lance had seen Hunk survive out in the real world before they had made it to The Garrison. Despite what everyone, especially Keith, had thought about the teddy bear of a man, Lance knew Hunk could handle himself out there. He had saved her ass more times then she could count in the short time they were on the outside together. 

What Keith didn’t get was that people who had survived on the outside weren’t too gun-ho to hop on back out. 

The house was always especially quiet the night before a Run, and the rest of town left them alone. They had a certain level of respect around town, as a lot of the time Runner’s didn’t make it back. 

Lance laid in her small, twin sized bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering how her life had gotten here. Those thoughts were dangerous, she knew, but her mind sometimes slipped into that little hole of remembering everyone she left behind in order to get where she was now. Keith was good for that, for numbing her mind out of those thoughts. At least she was good for something… 

“Hey,” Keith said, leaning in the doorframe of her bedroom. 

Speak of the devil. 

Lance turned her head a little to just barely look at the girl. “So, I heard you tried to get me kicked off tomorrow’s Run.” She said and the dark haired girl rolled her eyes. 

“You wanna argue or you wanna do something else?” Keith asked, looking annoyed. 

Lance rolled her eyes at the stupid, and hot, and stupidly hot woman standing in her doorway, still dressed in her dark jeans, and little red top. Her hair was pulled back in a tight, messy ponytail and Lance would be lying if she said that she wasn’t turned on. 

Lance sighed, sitting up on the bed, making her little pink sleep shorts ride up a bit. She smirked a bit when she found Keith’s eyes glued to that fact. They were going to be in the woods for a few days and wouldn’t be able to do… it… for a while. “Fine,” Lance said, “come here.” 

“Whatever.” Keith said, making her way over the bed, pulling back in surprise when Lance went right for her lips. 

“What happened to no kissing on the lips?” Keith asked, as in order to make a crazy arrangement like ‘enemies with benefits' work, meant that they had to have ground rules. 

Lance pounded, licking her soft, plump lips just enough to make sure she had Keith’s attention. “Indulge me, just this once.” Lance said, desperately trying to get Veronica’s face from her mind. Not giving her much opportunity to decline, Lance wrapped her arms around Keith's neck and pulled her in close until their lips met. 

Lance wasn’t too sure what had come over her, wasn’t this how people got attached? Oh well, all she knew was that she needed to feel close to someone, anyone, and Keith just happened to be in the room. 

Also, kissing was fun. Like, really, super fun. And much to Lance’s surprise, Keith was good at it. 

Keith suddenly broke apart, smiling when Lance pounded that her mouth was no longer on hers. Keith would never in a million years admite how cute that was. “There,” she said, out of breath and cockily. “I indulged you, now can I kiss somewhere else?” 

Keith laughed when Lance could only nod as a response. 

Lance enjoyed the closeness they would experience over the next hour or so, as she knew that the next day, once they were outside of the bedroom, they would go right back to hating each other. 

….. 

Keith was surprised to wake up with Lance of all people sleeping soundly on her chest. “What the fuck?” she barked, making Lance jolt up from her rhemsleep. 

“What?” she yelled, instantly on alert. 

Keith frowed, “what the fuck? You broke two rules in one night. Wait to go, McLain.” she said, reffuring to the ‘no sleeping in the same bed after fucking’ rule they had perviously put in place. 

Lance recoiled, still on top of the girl. “As if! This is my bed, you broke the rule!” 

Keith rolled her eyes, her stupid, gerogous eyes… “Yeah well it’s hard to move hen you’re fucking sleeping on top of me.” she said. 

Lance smirked at her, leaning in close to her face, doing her best bedroom eyes. “Oh, so what you’re saying is you didn’t wanna wake me? That’s sweet, Mullet.” 

“You wish,” Keith sighed, taking advantage of Lance perched up on top of her to throw her off of the twin bed, toppaling onto the hardwood. 

She yelped a bit as she went down. “You’re such a bitch,” Lance growled. “Get the hell out of my room, you better pray I ever fuck you again.” 

Keith stood up and slipped back on her shirt from last night, stepping over Lance indifferently as she made her way out of the room. Whilst standing over her, Keith leaned over as a cocky grin came across her face. “Your moaning last night would beg to differ.” 

Lance's face flushed in embarrassment. “Fuck you.” she breathed. 

“You already did.” Keith said, walking out of the door. 

Lance buried her face in her hands, laying back down against the floor where she sat. “How do I get myself into these situations?” she wondered. 

……. 

Lance had refused to cut her hair since the world went to Hell. Keith was a prime example of why. Not too many barbours had survived the end of the world, Keith exemplifying what happens when you cut your hair on your own with a pocket knife. 

She didn’t call her ‘Mullet’ for nothing. 

Keith had always berated her for it, calling it ‘impractical’ given their current world situation. Still, Lance didn’t listen, and so with wavy brown hair falling almost completely down her back, anytime they went on Runs she would put it back in two tight french braids that would stay in for however long they were gone. 

She remembered being a girl sitting in her Mama’s kitchen before school, it always smelling like strong coffee and exotic spices. She had braided her hair every morning before school. 

She had killed her Mama in that same kitchen. 

Lance shook her head vigorously at the memory, hoping it would fall out of her head, but the only thing to fall was the braid. “Fuck,” Lance breathed, grabbing the strainds as she began redoing it. 

“Hurry the fuck up.” Keith had braked, because, as much as she hated to admit it, when Shiro wasn’t around, Keith was in charge. She poked her head in Lance’s small bedroom, rolling her eyes when she saw the girl braiding. “Are you seriously doing your hair right now?” Keith asked. 

Lance sighed, “It’s the only way to keep it out of way when we're in the woods.” Lance said, “they’ve gotta be tight to stay in for the three days we're gone.” 

Keith pulled a knife from her pocket, rhythmically closing and reopening it on impulse. “You know, you could always just cut it off.” 

Lance scoffed, never turning from the mirror, but making light eye contact with the girl's reflection. “And risk looking like you? No thanks.” 

“Whatever,” Keith said, almost looking… offended? Lance scoffed at the thought, as her words meant anything to Keith. “Be outside in five minuets or we’re leaving without you.” She said, slamming the door behind her. 

The door was quickly reopened by a short little friend. Lance smiled at Pidge’s presence. “Mourning, Gremlin! All packed up?” She sang, as she rather liked Pidge. 

Ignoring the question, Pidge flopped down on her bed, bouncing on the old springs. “Man, Keith’s really starting to like you.” The girl stated. 

Lance laughed a little, assuming it was a joke before realizing Pidge was serious. She turned a bit from the mirror, giving the girl a questioning glare over her shoulder. “Did we just witness the same encounter?” 

Pidge smiled, adjusting her giant glasses. Lance still didn’t know if they were just for show or not. “Oh come on Lance, ‘five more minutes’? Ol’ drill sergeant Kogain never gives out extra time. When I broke my ankle last year she yelled at me for being thirty seconds late! I’m just saying man, watch yourself. I think she might like you.”

Lance laughed a little, tying off her braid. “Trust me, munchkin, Keith likes me as much as a kidney stone.” she said, standing from her chair and slinging her pack over her shoulder. “The only thing Keith likes about me are my tites, and vice versa. Now come on, we both know that she will leave up behind.” 60606060

…. 

Lance and Pidge approached the old, dinged up van parked in front of the doors to the Garrison’s walls. Shiro, their captain, leaned against the car with his little ass kissing his right hand, Keith, at his side. Hunk was visibly shaking as they approached. 5959595995 

“You’re late.” Shiro stated, tossing both girls a canister full of water for their packs. “Keith, I expect you to keep better tabs on your Runners,” the man said. 

Keith shot Lance daggers with her eyes, as the pretty cuban girl gave a weak little salute, “Sorry sir, won’t happen again. I had a… rough morning,” she said, glancing at Keith who looked petrified that she was going to annocue their privous nights sex to Keith’s superior and brother. She bit her lip trying not to laugh at this fact. “I fell out of bed this morning, hurt my back,” she said with a little smile, loving how she could see that the only thing keeping Keith from tackling her to the ground was Shiro standing right next to her, ignorant of the situation. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Shiro said obviously, as Pidge hid her laugh behind a cough, making Keith lose just that much more colour in her face. “Now listen up, team, our mission is simple. We are going to Olkari, the last hospital that we haven’t rated in the state. It is not yet Galra territory, but we’ll have have to pass directly past one of their known towns, which is precisely why we’re doing half the voyage in Daisy,” he smiled, patting the old pile of parts that was supposed to be their awesome apocalypse car, “and the other half of foot through the woods. This should limit our chance of being seen drastically, so we shouldn’t have a problem. If all goes well, this should be a three day’s Run. Any questions?” he asked, seeming like the terminator from behind his mirrored sunglasses. 

“Uh, yeah, I have one,” Lance said, raising her hand a bit. “Can we name our Squadron? If the car gets a name then I say our Squad should get a name,” she smiled. 

Shiro smiled a bit despite himself, the others snickering, except for, of course, the fun police, Keith. “This is no time to be coming up with team names, Lance. God, you are such a brainless cheerleader.” she breathed angely. 

Lance, as usual, ignored Keith completely. “I was thinking ‘Voltron’.” she smiled, “you know, like the old cartoon from the 80’s? Me and my siblings used to watch it! It’s about this big awesome robot that fights space crime!” 

“Sounds stupid.” Keith said flatly. 

Shiro sighed, “okay, Keith’s right, we don’t have time for this.” Keith shot a snid look towards Lance at the statement, “Voltron it is, now get in the car!” 

‘Voltron’ Lance mouthed at Keith, reciprocating the look as the girl rolled her eyes. 

Oh yeah, this was gonna be a long trip.


	2. Taking the Shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team embarks on their long journey across the state. Tensions rise in the back seat of Daisy, as Lance and Keith can't seem to stop tormenting each other. 
> 
> However Keith shows a slightly different side of herself when the team encounters a dangerous situation after setting up camp in an abounded K-Mart.

….. 

Lance was like a baby when it came to the car. It was like it was physically impossible for her to stay awake in a moving vehicle. 

“How can she sleep while we’re driving through a zombie-infested waste land?” Hunk asked, big brown eyes constantly shifting towards the windows, refusing to let his guard down, even as they sped down desolate roads. 

“I don’t think she slept much last night,” Pidge quipped, resulting in Keith coughing up the water from her cantine across the dashboard, making Hunk and Pidge explode with laughter in the back seat. 

“What the Hell!” Shiro yelled as Keith coughed up half a lung, Hunk smiling for the first time that week. 

“W-wrong pipe,” Keith coughed, scowling at Pidge in the car’s mirror as the small girl began crying from her laughter. 

“I’m not even sorry, man!” She cried, grabbing her stomach and leaning over, shoving her face into the back of Keith's seat in front of her to muffle herself. 

Lance shot up, eyes half open. “Huh, what happened? Are we there?” she asked, dazed and confused. Pidge laughed harder at this, Shiro sitting in ignorant bliss. 

“Okay, that’s it,” Shiro said, glancing at Keith who was soping up second hand water with her red flannel. “Keith, Pidge, switch places, front seat privileges have been revoked, Katelina!” 

“But-” Keith tired. 

“Revoked, you fire hydrant.” The man yelled, “I can’t have you spewing while I drive!” 

Keith shot her head back dramatically and groaned, showing her young age as a twenty year old woman as she complained, something Shiro had been seeing less and less of. “Fine.” The girl said angrily, climbing over the console of the van to the backseat as Shiro sped down the abandoned highway. Pidge snickered, climbing up front with Shiro. The white haired man didn’t seem to notice Keith slugging Pidge in the arm as she crawled past. 

“What did I miss?” Lance asked, rubbing her eyes. Keith scowled in her direction from where she sat across from her in the van. “Oh, Keith’s here now. Great.” She mumbled, laying her head back against the window. So guess she was sitting next to Keith for the next eight hours… 

Amazing. 

Thanks Pidge. 

…….. 

Lance tried her best to keep her eyes open, but failed miserably. As a kid, whenever she couldn’t sleep, her Papa would take her riding around in his truck. Down the hot dirt roads in the dead of night, he wouldn't stop driving until Lance fell asleep. 

It was the only alone time they ever really got together, having such a big family. A few months before the world had gone to shit, Lance had been sixteen and awoke in her dark bedroom from yet another raging nightmare, her third of the week. A senior football boy at her high school had taken things… further than she wanted at the last school dance. 

Lance hadn't been able to sleep right since, even despite her older brothers kicking the snot out of the kid in the school’s parking lot the next day. 

“Papa!” She had screamed instinctively in the dark confunds of her room. The smiling, tanned man appeared in her doorway in a second. 

“Come, amour.” He had sadly smiled through his dark mustache, “let’s go for a drive.” 

Sure enough, even at sixteen freaking years old, Lance slept soundly in the backseat of her Papa’s pick up truck as he drove through the quiet streets for as long as it took for his babygirl to rest. 

Lance twisted in her sleep, grimacing at the memory of speeding away in that same red pickup truck, months later, with her Papa and everyone else in it’s rearview mirror. 

Lance slowly opened her eyes, whining a bit as she fell back into reality and out of a past she was trying to forget. Only to register that she had been on Keith’s shoulder. 

Fuck. 

Lance shot up at the realization, making eye contact with the woman who seemed indifferent. “Sorry,” Lance quickly mumbled, rubbing her eyes. How long had she been there? 

Keith shrugged, “don’t worry about it.” 

Lance flushed a bit in embarrassment, being thankful that Pidge was conked out against the passenger seat’s window, too unconscious to start shit. Shiro however, smirked at them a bit in the mirror, thankfully never saying a word. 

“You could have woken me up, you know.” Lance said defensively to the girl refusing to meet her eye. 

“I said don’t worry about it.” Keith said, annoyance thick in her voice. Lance rolled her eyes, pulling her legs up onto the seat with her, mumbling a ‘Whatever’ under her breath as she turned to the window. The last thing she needed was to give Keith something else to hold over her head. 

“Almost there, gang.” Shiro informed from the from the driver's seat. 

‘Oh God,’ Lance thought, coming to the realization that she had been sleeping against Keith for the entire car ride. She was never going to hear the end of it. 

“Another nightmare, buddy?” Hunk asked lightly, poking his head up from the seat behind the girl, where he sat. 

Lance knew he didn’t mean anything by it, but still flushed in embarrassment as Keith was sitting directly next to her. Though the dark haired girl never turned her head, Lance could feel her eyes on her. 

“Don’t worry about it, Hunk.” She hissed quietly, as there was no privacy in Daisy. 

“Was it about your Dad again?” Hunk asked softly. 

Lance whipped her head around to glare at her friend who only had good intentions. “Hunk,” she bit. 

“Sorry,” He said, knowing when he pushed too much. He patted her a bit on the shoulder before sitting back against his seat. 

She noticed Keith watching her from the corner of her eye. Lance gared at her, “Fuck off.” She whispered to the girl. 

Keith rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself.” She shot back. 

“Hey!” Shiro said, pulling off of the road. “We’re here, so you two better knock it off.” 

The two nodded a bit, still shooting each other's glances as they grabbed their packs. Lance gave Keith her best look of disdain, making sure she had her attention just enough before dragging her slender fingers up and down her long, bare legs, confined only to her shorts. She smiled when Keith’s eyes followed her fingers diligently. “Weak.” She laughed as Keith seethed, slamming the van’s door behind her. 

“Pidge,” Shiro said, gently shaking the youngest member of the team awake. “Come on, we’re here.” 

……. 

The team stretched tired limbs on the side of the road as the temperature began to dip, the sun just starting to threaten its departure. 

Shiro covered the car with forestry, trying to make it blend in with the other abandoned vehicles littered across the roads. The last thing they needed was some survivor stumbling upon their ride. Shiro glanced at Pidge as he pulled branches around the car. “Oh, all of you two armed people don’t all jump at once to help me.” Shiro said as Pidge rolled her eyes, walking to the side of the road to help the man.

“Jeez, you lose an arm to a zombie one time and you never hear the end of it,” Pidge mumbled. 

“Care to repeat that?” The man asked as Pidge laughed. 

“We’ve got a few more hours of daylight, we should get moving.” Keith announced. 

“Yes, sir.” Lance said sarcastically, saluting the girl. 

“Do I need to remind you that I’m above you?” Keith growled. 

Lance smirked a bit, leaning in close to the girl's ear. “Yes, love, I know you’re a top.” 

Keith gave her a pissed off look, giving Lance’s shoulder a harsh shove, though Lance’s cocky grin never wavered. “Fuck you.” Keith said angrily. 

Lance smiled calmy, giving her the up and down with her bright blue eyes. “You already did.” She smirked, getting revenge for that morning. 

Keith was about to tackle her to the pavement when Shiro stood in between them. “Hey!” He barked, “knock it off! We are out in the real world, and Biters are everywhere. Now shut up and watch each other’s back, or this will be the last Run for both of you,” Shiro said sternly, looking at Keith. “I mean it.” 

“Sorry, Shiro.” Lance said quickly. He was right… they had bigger matters to focus on currently. 

Keith just nodded, not looking any less pissed as she stormed off towards the woods. “Let’s move,” she said. 

……. 

The woods were quiet, making everyone stand on alert, weapons in hand as they walked in a group through the rough terrain. 

Hunk still looked extremely nervous, but held himself well, slightly impressing Keith. 

“Hunk, you haven’t run off screaming yet,” Keith said, breaking their hour of silence. “Good job.” 

“You don’t have to be an asshole.” Lance bit, not even realizing she was giving Keith exactly what she wanted: a reaction. 

Keith shrugged a bit, waking ahead to catch up with Shiro. Lance growled in frustration, turning her gayze a bit towards Hunk and she held back a branch. “You’re doing amazing, buddy, don’t let Caption Bitch over there tell you any different.” She said to her friend. 

Hunk smiled a bit, “meh, I think that by Keith’s standards that was actually a pretty great compliment!” He beamed, Lance couldn’t help but smile at her friend and his optimism. 

“So,” Pidge smiled from where she walked next to Hunk, stumbling over a root a bit as Hunk caught her. “Keith let you sleep on her shoulder for an eight hour car ride, you still think she doesn't like you?” She asked, sly smirk making its way across her young face. 

Lance’s face flushed a little in colour as Hunk chuckled. So Pidge had seen that… “Yeah,” Lance said indifferently, “and then almost killed me on the side of the road,” she said. “Keith has done exactly three nice things for me in the two years I’ve known her. I’ll add it to the list if that will make you happy.” She said sarcastically. 

Pidge smiled, “Aw, so you have a list? That’s sweet.” 

“You are such a little shit disturber,” Hunk laughed at Pidge. 

Lance rolled her eyes, shoving the girl a bit. “Watch yourself, Pigeon.” She warned. Pidge opened her mouth to respond, but Lance was, as usual, taking first. 

“Puddle!” The girl screamed as she ran through the woods, jumping in the air and landing in it, managing to splash Keith in the process. 

“That’s it,” Keith growled, chasing after the laughing girl through the woods. 

…….. 

The group had managed to find some railroad tracks. After much begging that they no longer wanted to make their way through the forestry, Shiro had reluctantly agreed to let them walk the tracks. 

“But only until we hit the convenience store!” Shiro called after them as they ran along the tracks like a bunch of little kids.

Out on the tracks, unlike the woods, they were completely exposed. However, Keith had pointed out that they wouldn't officially hit Galra territory until at least tomorrow. “As long as we keep our guard up we should be okay, Runners.” Shiro said, addressing the group. 

“You mean ‘Paladins’!” Lance corrected him, smiling as she hopped along the tracks. 

“What?” Shiro asked. 

“Paladins,” Lance smiled, “You know, since our team name is Voltron.” 

“You are such a child.” Keith breathed. 

Ignoring her, Lance skipped happily along beside her, pissing the girl off even more. Which was, sort of the goal. Lance was just happy to be out of the confounds that were The Garrison’s walls. She had basically grown up outside, chasing her brothers and their friends up the tracks, as when you were a little sister you were constantly ‘It’ in every game you played. 

“Hey Keith,” Lance sang in the type of voice that only a little sister trying to get a rise out of her older brother could make. “Bet I can balance longer then you!” She said, standing on the tracks’s metal railing elevated off of the ground, dramatically teetering back and forth. 

“Is everything a joke to you?” Keith asked, looking unimpressed. 

“Almost exclusively, yes.” Lance answered. “Afraid you’ll lose?” 

Keith sighed. “Fine,” she bit, stepping up onto the rail opposite to Lance. “But only to shut you up. And what do I get when I win?” 

Shiro raised an eyebrow from where he walked about ten feet back at the sight of Keith balancing on the rail. “That’s something I didn’t expect to see any time soon,” he mused. 

“What, Keith having fun?” Pidge smiled up at the man. “Yeah, me neither!” 

“Lance has a way about her,” Hunk smiled, “only she can make the end of the world fun.” 

“Huh,” Lance poundered as they walked. “I don’t know, I didn’t think I’d make it this far. You’re not very fun, Kogane.” She said simply. 

Keith rolled her eyes, “how about you stop screwing around the entire mission?” 

Lance scoffed, her insults long since not hurting anymore. “And imagine how boring that would be,” she smirked. 

Lance had quickly stopped smirking when Keith had won her bracelet. 

It was a stupid game anyway. 

…… 

As the team- oh, I’m sorry, as ‘Voltron’ approached the abandoned ghost town, they stood quiet and on guard. 

“Okay, Voltron,” Shiro whispered, Lance smiling widely at the name. “We just need to get to the K-Mart, and we’ll make camp there for the night. Walls are always safer. Be on alert, this is a town, remember. Biter’s could be anywhere, and everywhere.” He said as the team nodded. 

Walking in silence, they watched each other's backs as they moved at a slow and steady pace. The sun was just beginning to go down, making their shadows stretch far across the old, cracked pavement. It was small town America at its finests, as they passed Mom and Pop diners, laundromats and of course, Hardware stores. 

A rustle to the side caught the group's attention, as three Biters began to slowly approach. Two men, and a woman. 

Two were pretty far gone, decaying messes that couldn’t walk faster than a toddler. One of the men however, was freshly turned, and came running like a bat out of Hell. 

Lance took it out, long rang, with her pistole before it could get close. She smirked a bit at Keith. “And that’s why you bring your Sharp Shooter,” the girl said cockily. 

Keith glared at her, yanking a knife from its holder clipped to her belt, spinning it in her fingers as she approached the monsters. 

Walking up to the slow moving beasts, they became excited with Keith in their sights and begane clawing at the girl. She swiftly and easily dodged their grabbing hands, stabbed into their soft skulls. 

Keith glanced at Lance, not quite smiling, but not quite frowning either. “And that’s why you need to learn close range,” she said.

Lance rolled her eyes and the group ran to the K-Mart, now in sight. “Yeah, because they were real threats.” Lance said sarcastically. 

“Can’t hide behind a gun forever.” Keith said. 

“At least I can shoot.” Lance shot back. 

“Enough.” Shiro whispered as they pressed their backs against the building's walls outside of the entrance. 

Shiro and Keith nodded at each other, as usual being the first ones in. Lance trailed behind Keith, the pair checking the right side of the store as the others checked the left. 

In a previous life Shiro had been a cop, and taught his squadron how to check a store quickly and efficiently, with all the precision of uniformed officers. The only difference is they were kids. With weapons raised, they diligently checked each isal. 

“Clear!” Keith called out. Lance glared at the girl. 

“I wanted to say it,” she whined. 

Keith rolled her eyes. “Grow up.” She muttered. 

“Clear!” Shrio called. “We’re all good.” He said, meeting up with the pair in the middle of the store. “Let’s set up.” 

…………

Lance was leaning against the checkout counter of the store when it happened. 

“Truth of Dare?” Pidge suggested, sitting on the tiled floor snuggled up to Hunk. 

Lance laughed over her cold beans she was eating from the can. “Sure, why not. Keith?” 

“Pass.” She said from where she leaned against a shelf, rhythmically dragging a dirty cloth over her knife. 

“Of course,” Lance rolled. “Shiro, as Head I find it mandatory that you participate in this team bonding.” She smiled. 

“Fine,” the man said with a small laugh, “Pidge, you suggested it so you start.” 

Lance laughed, “even when playing a game Shiro has to be in charge.” 

“Pidge, please dare Lance to jump off a bridge.” Shiro said flatly. 

“I’ll play if those are the stakes.” Keith smirked. 

Lance rolled her eyes. “Very funny you guys,” she said, pushing off the counter and standing with her back against a storage closet door. 

Before Lance knew what was happening, the door was slammed open and two large, strong arms found their way around her neck, wasting no time squeezing. She barely had time to scream. 

The others were on their feet, weapons drawn in just as quickly as the terrified looking man had put his hands on Lance. “Just let me walk!” The man, who had to have been in his late thirties, screamed at the group. 

He didn’t look at Galra, but they couldn’t take any chances. “Release her, now.” Shiro barked. “You’re outnumbered!”

At the threat the man's grip tightened out of fear, or leverage, or… both. Lance coughed, desperately trying to suck back up the air that was being squeezed out of her. She clawed at his arms, breaking the skin, but still the man didn’t so much as flinch. 

“Drop her!” Shiro ordered. 

“Just let me walk out of here!” The man screamed. He had clearly been hiding in the store when five heavily armed strangers walked it. He saw this as his only way out. In this world, you had to be just as afraid of the living as you did of the dead. 

Lance was almost blue at this point, legs buckling beneath her as she attempted to breath, failing miserably. “Last warning!” Shiro yelled. 

On impulse, the man tightened his grip once more, making Lance go almost completely limp. 

At this, Keith fired the shot just barely missing Lance as it wizzed over the top of her head, hitting the man in his. He jerked back with force, half of his head cascading over the walls. Lance fell to the ground in a heap, immediately gasping for air, coughing so hard bits of blood splattered on the tile floor. 

……… 

Lance was pretty shaken up, understandably so, and went to bed pretty quickly after that. Black circles formed under her eyes, making her look scared and tired all the time.  
She slept motionlessly, in a grey, dreamless sleep on the dirty tile floors of the old supermarket. 

Hunk and Pidge had fallen asleep too. Scary times like these really made Pidge show her age, as the team and herself often forgot that she was a sixteen year old girl. Curled into a ball, the girl slept soundly against Hunk. 

Sleep, however, would not find the second in command. She sat with her back to the aisle, watching her sleeping teammates and replaying the day's events in her head. 

Lance had been like a car wreck, you wanted to look away from the scene that was just going to upset you, but you just somehow, couldn’t… Keith starred, unmoving, as she watched Lance suck up the air like she was afraid it was going to be taken away again. 

Shiro was at her side in an instant, placing a hand on her back as she coughed so hard she couldn’t breathe. 

The entire team in fact, had been at her side in a second. But still, Keith for some reason, couldn’t move. 

Keith jumped back at the sudden plastic water bottle that was held in front of her face. She smiled at Shiro’s familiar presence. “Can’t sleep?” 

“Someone should keep watch,” she said offhandedly, untwisting the top. 

“That’s a Head’s job, you know.” He said softly as she sat down beside her. When the girl didn’t respond, he put a heavy, warm arm around Keith. “You did the right thing you know, Keith. I… I should have taken the shot sooner.” 

“You don’t get it, Shiro.” Keith bit, her eye’s finding the bruises forming on Lance’s neck for the millionth time that night. “I was second in command, I checked that section of the store. If I have done my job a little better then we could have caught him before he got to Lance.” The girl said, hand shaking as she attempted to lift the bottle to her lips, mouth suddenly dry. “And I should have left the shot to you.. Lance is right, I’m a terrible with a gun… It was a miracle I didn’t hit her. It- it was stupid, and reckless, and, and… Why are you smiling right now?” Keith asked staring at the man. 

“Because, you’re finally starting to sound like a Head,” Shiro said. “You know your biggest problem has been Keith?” 

“No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.” 

“You never put your teammates' needs ahead of your own. You go off on your own, you're reckless, you don’t listen to anyone else's options.”

“This is really making me feel better, thanks, Shiro.” 

“But,” the man continued, ignoring her. “Today you did the right thing, and you questioned yourself on it. Admitting you're not perfect is the first step to getting there. If you hadn't have taken that shot, Lance would have lost consciousness, and this whole mess could have been a lot worse. That's exactly why you’re my Second,” he smiled. 

Keith breathed out a heavy sigh, placing her head on his shoulder. “Thanks, Shiro.” 

Lance suddenly shot up from where she slept, gasping for air like she had forgotten how to breathe. Keith was like a deer in headlights, but as usual, Shiro knew exactly what to do. He sat where she was, putting a hand on her back, “hey, you’re okay, Lance,” he said calmly, not patronizing. 

Lance’s gasps for breath calmed down a laboured breathing. “S-sorry, Shiro…” the girl said, “I-I just felt like I couldn’t breathe... “ 

“It’s been a hard day.” Shiro said, reassuring the girl that she wasn’t crazy, helping her sit up against the isal. “Sit tight, I’ll get you something to drink.” The girl looked far away, giving a little nod and as the man walked away. Her eyes crept up to meet Keith’s, as she gave the girl a little smile. 

Keith awkwardly returned it, before getting up and walking over to the girl. “How you feeling?” She asked, sitting next to her. 

“Embarrassed, mostly.” Lance said, drawing her legs up to her chest, resting her tired head on her knees, but still remained eye contact. Keith noticed that the tan girl was distinctly paler. 

“That’s stupid.” Keith said flatly. 

“Whatever.” Lance breathed, remembering who she was taking to. 

“No I didn’t mean it like that… Don’t feel bad for someone getting the drop on you… It's happened to all of us.” Keith sighed. Lance gave her a little smile. Keith was always a bit nicer when the others weren’t around, although Lance figured she probably was too. “Does it still hurt?” Keith asked, looking at the girl and touching the bruise on her neck. Lance jumped back, letting out a little screech. “Sorry-!” She said quickly. 

“Yeah, Keith, it still fucking hurts,” Lance growled. “So don’t fucking poke it.” 

“I didn’t poke it, you baby.” Keith bit. 

“Yeah, well, you touched it.” 

“A touch isn’t a poke.” Keith pointed out. 

Lance sighed, “I hate you.” 

“Fair,” Keith shrugged. 

The two sat in silence for a minute before Lance dared to ask the question. “Does, it, uh… look bad?” 

Keith fumbled, glancing at her yellow and purpling parts of her neck that seemed so out of place against her beautiful brown skin. “Uh, it looks… different?” She managed. 

Lance gave her a long stare, and Keith was sure they were going to fight again. She was extremely taken aback when Lance burst out laughing. “T-thanks,” the girl breathed through her giggles as Keith even cracked a smile. A milestone, really, Keith smiling and what not. 

Shiro smirked at the sight as he appeared, handing Lance the sugariest drink he could find. “Here, this might help you feel a bit better.” 

“Thanks, Shiro,” Lance smiled weakly, taking a small sip and almost spitting it all over the isal. She grasped her neck, gently pushing the liquid down her soft thought. “Fuck, swalloing hurts.” She winced, putting the drink down immediately. 

She placed her hands around her throat. It felt hot and soar. It was like when she got her tonsils out as a kid, only a million times worse. Without warning, Lance grabbed Keith’s hand. She immediately jerked back at the motion. 

“Keith, are your hands cold?” She asked. 

“I don’t know, what kind of stupid question is that?” The girl snapped. 

Lance rolled her eyes, grabbing the girl's hand, only this time, she didn’t pull away. “They are.” She stated, raising them to her neck. “Please?” She asked, looking a little more desperate than she had planned. 

“Uh… fine.” Keith said, a little shocked at herself as she found her ice cold hands on Lance’s throbbing neck. She smiled a bit to herself as Lance instantly purred in relife, her head immediately falling heavy onto the girl's shoulder. 

“Thank you,” she said. 

“Whatever,” Kieth gritted. “This is a first and last time offer.” 

“Yeah, next time I get choked out I swear I won’t ask for help, promise.” Lance mumbled sarcastically. 

“You’re an idiot.” Keith exasperated. 

Lance nodded a bit into Keith’s houlder. “Yup.” She said softly, tidered thumb caressing the bracelet Keith wore that had previously been hers that day, before she had slipped and fallen off the tracks. 

She wouldn't admit, not even to herself, that she had fallen on purpose. 

……….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! 
> 
> What are we thinking of the story so far? :) 
> 
> -M


	3. Boots and Treehouses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith burst out laughing, Lance still in her arms. “And that’s why we wear boots, Sharpshooter.” Keith said, giving Lance right back that same shit eating grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry this took SO LONG!   
> I had a university research paper I was putting off to write this!   
> The my Province had a mass shooting, the worst in Canadian history...   
> Then a few days later we went into a state of Emergency for a few hours.   
> So yeah, life's been crazy! I hope this is a good distraction for quarantine, my loves!

………. 

Shio had woken them before dawn. 

“Up, up, up,” he called, pacing up and down the tiles until the teenagers roused. “Come on, Voltron, move, we leave in ten.” He said as he walked the isles, Lance forcing heavy eyelids to retreat back into her head. 

“Another day in paradise,” Lance mubled hoarsely, grimacing a bit as the vibrations for her voice sent little shocks of familier pain down her neck, light bruises stil dusting her skin. 

“That still hurt?” Keith had asked, noticing her grimace. Lance opened her eyes properly to see Keith looking down at her, about two inches from her own face. Why was she doing that? 

It was then Lance realized that she was currently using Keith’s thigh as a pillow. 

Fuck. 

Lance shot up at the realization, mixed with the scare Keith had given her, completely forgetting that the woman hovering above her. Lance hit her forehead right off of Keith’s, sending both women falling backwards. 

“What the fuck?” Keith yelled, Lance covering her own face with her hand, half out of pain, the other out of complete embarrassment.

Nothing like a six AM headbutt. 

“Sorry!” Lance moaned as she rolled over on the floor, Shiro shushing them. Though Lance’s eyes were still tightly closed, she could recognize Pidge’s haistarical, evil laughter watching the scene unfold. 

“Do I need to remind you girls that Biters are drawn to sound?” Their Head, Shiro, bit at them. 

“Sorry Shiro,” Lance maoned, “I just didn’t expect to wake up to having someone staring at me!” 

“Keith.” Shiro scolded, assuming it was another one of the girls relentless pranks the pair had always seemed to be douling out to one another. 

“I- What?!” Keith yelled as quietly as possible, frustration clear. “Are you kidding me, you were sleeping on me! Again! You keep breaking the rules!” Keith said, holding her head the entire time. 

“What rules?” Shiro demanded. 

Lance and Keith’s faces dropped. “Nothing.” they said in perfect unison. 

If it was possible for Pidge to laugh harder, trust me, she would have. 

………

Shiro carried a long machete with a faded black handle on his hip at all times. He harshly slashed it through the branches as they walked through rougher parts of the forest, not being allowed on the railroad tracks for the rest of their journey as they ventured closer and closer to Galra territory. 

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Lance asked skeptically, releasing a tree branch only to have it swat Keith in the face. Lance laughed a bit as Keith shoved her. 

“Are you doubting my navigation skills?” Pidge asked dryly as she glanced down at her map, Lance jumping behind Hunk attempting to hide from Keith as she shoved her back. 

“Your navigation skills better not have gotten us lost,” Keith growled as she narrowly avoided Lance when she jumped behind Hunk. 

Pidge scowled at the girl, “I haven't let us down, and it’s like, our one millionth Run together, so shut up, Kogane.” Pidge glared at the older girl, having earned herself onto the Squad with her intellect rather than her physical demeanor. Until Pidge had gotten there, they had lost a lot more Runners, rather that be to the Galra, or to the unexpected hordes of Biters. Pidge brought something that until her, they hadn't had: a plan. 

Because of Pidge, they now went through the woods rather than through Ghost towns. Keith hated the change, but the trees gave shelter, and avoiding cities meant avoiding hordes. 

When Pidge had first gotten onto the squad, Keith had fought tooth and nail. 

“She’s a kid, Shiro!” Keith had yelled, unaware of the girl listening outside of the door, Lance’s arm around her shoulder as, from the day Pidge had arrived at the camp, Lance had assigned Pidge as her little sister. “And a scrawny one at that! I know you worked with her dad before the world went to hell, but come on!” 

“Katelina,” Shiro scolded from behind the closed door, Lance holding back the Pidge who was now shaking with anger as she listened to every word. “We can’t keep going in bllind. She may be a kid but she’s the only person to bring any sort of plan to our Runs.” He said, trying to reason with her. “If we find someone who can navigate a course through the woods then we can avoid the added risks of going through towns. Like it or not, she’s in our Squad.” 

“She’s a child!” Keith yelled. 

“You’re not much older,” Shiro pointed out. 

Pidge could no longer contain her anger. Pulling herself off of the floor and out of Lance’s arms, Pidge all but kicked down Shiro’s door. “Hey, listen here you mullet owning moron!” Pidge yelled, Lance holding back her laughter from the doorway at the sight of Pidge approaching the girl a foot and a half taller than her, planting herself under her chin and angrily pointing up at Keith as she spoke. “I may be a kid but I lasted outside of those walls a lot longer than you ever did! Now let me map courses for your sorry ass and maybe you’ll stop losing so many Runners, oh mighty leader,” Pidge seethed. 

Lance had gotten kicked out of the little ordeal for laughing so hard in the doorway, but little Pidge delivering Keith’s ass on a platter was too much of a sight for her to handle. 

Keith hadn't visited Lance for a week after that. Worth it. Ever since then, Keith all but left Pidge alone, but still bothered her on Runs. 

Despite their arrangement, that never stopped Lance from defending Pidge every step of the way. 

Lance ripped the map from Keith’s grabby hands as they walked through the woods, both the heat and exhaustion beginning to get to the both of them. “Buzz of Keith,” Lance said, handing the map back to Pidge. “I’m not dying out here because you’re being a jerk.” 

“Yeah, well, I’m not dying because some kid gets us lost in the woods,” Keith shot back, taking another step dangerously close to Lance. Before they knew it, a machete was being pointed at them. 

It silenced the girls immediately as they followed the blade back to Shiro’s scowling face, Pidge snatching the map back from Keith with a glare. The black haired woman let out a puff of annoyed air, mumbling a quick ‘whatever’ under her breath before stomping off to the front of the group with Shiro. 

Pidge angrily adjusted her glasses, glancing up at Lance as they walked. “I take it back, you say that Keith’s done three nice things for you? I don’t think Keith knows what ‘nice’ is.” Pidge huffed. 

Lance let out a nervous little breath. “Yeah,” she agreed with a weak smile as the two walked, “I tried to tell you, she’s the worst.” But really, her mind just kept going back to Keith cold hands on her neck. To her sleeping head against Keith. To the fact that Keith never once stopped her, or desturbed her. To all of Pidge’s statements teasing her about Keith's hidden feelings. 

At Pidge’s words, Lance fell back into a memory. The day Lance had started counting Keith’s kind acts. The day she realized Keith was capable of kind acts. About six months ago Lance had layed in bed all but sobbing. Twisting her face into the foot of her bed inside of the Runners House, she moaned and hugged her stomach tightly in her hands. 

Periods in the apocalypse really sucked. 

Lance had thrown up twice that day, and much to her horror, one of the times had been during her Squad’s training session. Keith had been making them run, and Lance’s bloody insides just weren’t allowing it. She had not been able to get out of bed since training, and Lance wasn’t sure if it was because of her cramps or her embarrassment of hacking in front of Keith.

Tired brown eyes found their way to the doorframe where a black haired girl stood, eyeing her skeptically. They both knew what she was there for. That’s all Keith comes for at this time of night.

The number one thing that sucks about girl sex is if your cycles aren’t synched, you can really only hook up for two weeks out of the month.

“Not today, Kogane.” Lance mumbled into the sheets and she rolled over to face her. Lance opened her mouth for a further explanation, but a stab of pain that rippled in her body sent Lance clutching just below her stomach, muffling a cry as she rolled over once again. Needless to say, Keith got the message. 

“No offense, but I don’t really want to hook up with patient zero.” Keith scoffed, gesturing to Lance. Lance burried her face even further into her bed, managing to mumble out a ‘fuck you’ to Keith. Keith sighed, making her way into the room a bit. “Seriously though… you okay, Lance?” she asked. Keith had yelled at Lance that day in training for not pulling her weight, she was slower than she usually was. It’s not like Keith would admit it, but she didn’t feel too great about that right now… 

It takes a certain kind of pain to puke.

“Great.” Lance bit, “I love having cramps in the apocalypse.” 

Keith shuffled on her feet a bit, unsure of herself. “Is there, uh… anything I can do?”

Lance glared at her from between her stands of sweaty hair, sticking to her forehead. “You can get the hell out.” Lance said, surprised when, instead of retaliating, Keith only gave a sad little nod before walking out of the room and gently closing the door behind her. Lance tossed and turned in her little bed, muffling screams and sobs into her quilt as her uterus tried to claw its way out of her. Her period had always been bad. What she wouldn't do right now for a cup of her Mama’s cinnamon tea. 

A few hours later, when the sun had made its way down and Lance’s room was lit up with only candles, there was a soft little knock on her door. “Enter,” Lance had called, fully expecting Pidge or Hunk, but instead a second later Keith was walking in, handing her three little red pills. 

“Take these,” Keith demanded as Lance sat up a bit. 

“You’re giving me your rations?” Lance asked dumbfounded, as all women in the Garrison are granted five painkillers a month for times like these. Lance’s had long since been gone, as five pills for six days were all but useless. 

“This is for me, not you.” Keith said quickly, “we share a wall, I can’t sleep with all of your damn crying.” 

Lance laughed a bit, “sorry about that.” She said softly, too tired and sore to come up with a creative insult. The candle light made Keith’s harsh face look soft, or maybe that was just the way she was acting. Lance popped two of the pills into her mouth as Keith quickly handed her a steaming mug. 

“Here,” she said, “take it with this. It’s peppermint… Hunk hooked me up. It usually helps me… my stomach gets messed up on my period too...” She said, giving her best attempt at a smile. 

Lance’s eyes grew at Keith’s gestures. “... Thanks,” she eventually breathed. “Why are you being so nice to me? Today during training you told me that you were going to drag a real biter into the camp to get me to run faster, one of your more creative threats I’ll admit.” Lance said as she sipped. 

Keith laughed a bit, “like I said, this is clearly for selfish reasons. If I hear you scream one more time I’m going to throw myself out of my window.” She shot, standing up from her bed and making her way to the door. 

Lance smiled a bit despite herself as she lay back down against the sheets, the pills slowly starting to work their way through her body. “And Lance?” 

“Mm?” Lance asked back tiredly as Keith hovered in her doorway. 

“I better not see you at training tomorrow,” she said, blowing out a candle. “I’m your Second, and that’s an order.” Keith said before slamming the door behind her. 

Lance's head swirled that night, trying to figure out what had just happened. 

Lance watched Keith as she stormed off the front with Shiro, and wondered how she could be the asshole who took Pidge’s map, and the girl who shared her rations.

……….

Legs burned, but never wavered as Voltron made their way through the forestry, not yet running into some undead friends but being on edge nonetheless. Lance hated the way her boots cut into her legs, making walking hurt, and the blood flow being even more cut off in her tiered legs. 

“I miss my sneakers,” Lance whined. 

Keith looked annoyed, knowing the comment was aimed towards her, having just changed the uniform to no longer allow any footwear that didn’t cover your ankles. “For the last time, you can’t walk through the woods in sneakers, Lance.” She said from the front of the pack.

“Worked for the first a hundred missions I did before you made up that stupid rule,” Lance mumbled pettidly, trying to pick a fight to ignore the sticky heat surrounding them. 

“Lance-” Keith bit angely at the girl as Shiro raised his hand. 

“Enough,” Shiro called, opening his mouth, undoubtedly for a lecture, but stopped at the sound of rustling in the bushes. All stood at attention, in perfect silence, unmoving. Hunk threw worried eyes to Lance, who tried her best to return the rookie with a reassuring look. 

Keith held up two fingers to Shrio, but upon the noises getting louder the man shook his head. Keith held up five fingers now, with a questioning look. 

But the confused footsteps just kept growing, along with the sounds that only someone long since dead cold make. 

“Horde.” Shiro whispered, making the notion run, Voltron needing no further instruction as the group sprinted. 

……………………………

Despite being exhausted, underfed, and barely rested, Voltron ran like high school kids trying to make it to state. 

Completely silent, they ran, never branching too far from one another. But of course, this was still a competition, both Keith and Lance trying to outrun one another. 

Sounds turned into faces, and faces turned into angry, growling, and most importantly, running. 

They haven't been dead long. Those were the ones you had to worry about. ‘Newly Deads’ as Lance liked to call them were just as fast, just as strong, as they had been when they were alive, and worst of all, they knew that. 

There was no decay, no death to slow them down. 

A group of seven Biters, not looking much older than them, ran after Voltron through the woods at full force. They must have been a group of survivors camping in the woods. Clearly their lookout had fallen asleep. 

They stayed as quiet as they could despite their laboured breaths, that is until Lance’s boot laces became wound around a root. She let out a surprised little cry as she hit the ground hard, having been running full speed. 

Lance felt all the air in her lungs being harshly evicted, and before she knew what was happening she heard Keith yell, “Go!” 

“I’m trying,” Lance muttered, until she realized Keith had been yelling at the others. Without hesitation, Keith doubled back and grabbed Lance’s hand, quickly pulling her to her feet, and shooting down the leader of the undead horde currently chasing them, the man falling right at Lance’s ankles as she scurried to her feet. 

Three more seconds and Lance would have been one of them. 

Keith didn’t stop pulling her, and refused to let go of Lance’s hand as they ran, separating themselves from the group as they sprinted, and taking another path to split up the horde. 

Lance tried to pretend like her face plant didn’t hurt, but still, she let Keith pull her, her gloved hands tightly holding Lance’s. They had four biters on their back, and gaining speed quickly. It didn’t matter how many times this happened, it never got less scary, but still, oddly fun, like a game of tag for your life. 

“Keith!” Lance yelled after a moment, squeezing her hand as she spoke. “Look!” the girl called, Keith following her gaze to an old kids treehouse taking leasure in a nearby evergreen, the wooden structure almost completely covered in moss.

The pair sprinted, never once turning around but feeling the infected breathes of what once was a person right on their heels. Keith grabbed the old rope ladder and immediately shoved it into Lance’s hands, making her go up first. Lance rolled her eyes but followed her command. There was literally no time to argue. Stupid Keith, being selfless. 

Lance climbed as fast as she could, in a blind confusion of running, adrenaline, and fear, all she knew was that she had to move. Keith was right behind her. As Lance landed on the little wooden deck in a heap, she quickly rolled over to her side and grabbed Keith’s gloved hand, pulling the girl the rest of the way up. The two awkwardly rolled on top of one another (and not in the fun way), Keith quickly grabbing the ladder and pulling it up after them. 

Lance was breathing fast, Keith by her side as they heard the screaming voices below them clawing angrily at the tree bark and attempting to climb. 

Lance turned her head to the side from where her and Keith lay on their backs, gasping for breath. Lance gave Keith a little shit eating grin. “So, looks like you’re in need of a sharpshooter, huh?” She winked as she pulled her gun. 

“Shut up and shoot!” Keith growled, rolling onto her feet. 

“You’re no fun,” Lance whined, pulling her old police pistol from her holster, the same gun Keith had called her an idiot for spray painting blue, but the apocalypse was all about aesthetic. She easily took out the four that had apparently been chasing them. The others were thankfully drawn by the sound of the shots, as two more quickly appeared below them. Lance took them down from the treehouses ledge with only two bullets, both perfect headshots.

As soon as the last one fell, so did Lance, in a heap of exhaustion. “Well that was stressful,” the girl breathed as Keith joined her in sitting. 

Keith nodded in agreement. “We got most of ‘em,” she spoke, “I’m sure the others got the few biters that were following them, but most of them trailed after us when we branched off. We should go find them, Shiro’s probably freaking out.” 

Lance sighed, nodding a bit. “Hey Keith?” She asked as she grabbed the girls wrist from where she stood up, Lance still sitting with her back against the house. 

“Yes, Lance?” Keith said, only a bit of sarcasm making its way into her words. 

Lance smiled a bit as she looked up at her. “Thanks for saving my ass back there.” 

Keith smiled a bit in surprise at Lance’s words, but caught herself fast enough as her face dropped, but not fully. “Yeah, well, someone has to.” She huffed, throwing the ladder off of the ledge before scaling down. 

…………….. 

“Oh my god, you never scare me like that again, young lady!” Hunk screamed as she lifted Lance in a bone-crushing hug when the duo met back up with the group, easily trailing them back to the spot where they had all split up, which was Runner protocall when split up. 

“Hunk,” Lance breathed, “I’m fun, you can put me down now, buddy!” She said as Hunk released. “Besides, none of this would have happened if Keith didn’t try to kill me!” 

“What!” Keith yelled, taken aback. “I saved your ass back there! You said so yourself!” 

Lance smirked at her, as pissing off Keith was what she lived for. The Hothead just made it so damn easy. “First of all, I don’t remember that, so it didn’t happen.” She said, using every ounce of willpower not to burst out laughing at the look Keith gave, like she was going to explode on the spot, as Shiro put his hands on her shoulders to calm the girl. “Second of all, I only fell because of these damn boots you make us wear! I could have outrun that horde and all of you if I had been wearing my sneakers!” 

Keith glared and swatted Lance’s boot away from where she held it up for dramatics. 

“Sneakers are not suitable for the elements out here, Lance.” Shiro smiled as he continued to walk. “Now come on, we’ve got a lot of land to cover, that little episode already put us behind. We’ll be lucky if we make it to camp by sundown.” 

Keith shot a glare at Lance, who immediately wanted to take it all back and make Keith smile like she had done when she thanked her. 

Wait, what?

Teasing Keith used to be fun. 

What was wrong with her? 

…………….. 

“What you did was good back there,” Shiro praised as he and Keith led the group down something that thankfully resembled a path. Shiro’s sword sat on his hip. 

Keith scoffed, “Lance didn’t think so.” 

Shiro smiled knowingly. “Since when do you care about what Lance thinks?” 

Keith’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “I don’t!” she said, way too loudly for the conversation. Shiro chuckled while Keith looked away, brushing stray black hair back into her ponytail to give herself something to do. 

“Well, Lance wouldn't have been thinking anything you hadn’t have acted so quickly.” Shiro smiled, patting her a bit on the shoulder. “I didn’t even notice she had fallen. None of us did. It was almost like you were watching her while we were running…” 

Shiro grunted in surprise at the smaller first that was suddenly cast into his gut. “What exactly are you implying here, Shirogane?” Keith growled. 

Shiro laughed, “nothing at all, Katelina. I think you just proved my point.” 

“Whatever,” she grumbled, rubbing her wrist to distract herself. Pulling back a bit at the feeling of metal grinding beneath her fingers, Keith glanced down only to remember that she was wearing Lance’s bracelet. Well, her bracelet. She had won it fair and square. 

Hadn’t she? 

Keith was pulled from her thoughts as a small scream ripped its way through the forest. “Lance!” Shiro called as she ran back to the girl, but Keith was faster, catching her as she fell. “What happened?” Shrio barked, Lance’s tan face going completely white in fear. 

“Lance stepped on a snake!” Pidge explained quickly as the leafs around them rustled, the snake skidding away at the scene at full speed. “Don’t worry, it only got her boot.” 

Lance shook off the terror. She hates the scaley little things even more than the Biters. Keith burst out laughing, Lance still in her arms. 

“And that’s why we wear boots, Sharpshooter.” Keith said, giving Lance right back that same shit eating grin. 

Now it was Lance’s turn to scowl. 

So, Kogane had won this round.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't read and run!! 
> 
> (Also, if you guys want another great Klance fit to read in quarantine, I'm obsessed with "All Is Fair in Love or War" by AveryDreams!) 
> 
> Next chapter up soon!


	4. Shadow Puppets and Supply Closets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a low key sex scene in this chapater- I swear just for plot reasons! This chapter was pretty fluffy actually... whoops. 
> 
> "Try to make sure you don’t leave any crazy people wandering around,” Lance mumbled as she pointed her gun down an empty hallway, watching Keith’s back. “You know, like last time.” 
> 
> That shouldn’t have hurt. 
> 
> It should have just been their normal banter, the jabs they threw at one another constantly in and out of the field. But Keith’s eyes found the bruises on Lance’s neck for the millionth time, and suddenly it wasn't just banter anymore.

Lance fiddled with the two little holes in her boots the the snakes stupid little snake teeth had left. 

Stupid fucking snakes. 

“There’s a reason God literally made you as the worst thing ever you humanity ruining, Garden of Eden banning little basterds.” Lance mumbled to herself as she jammed her painted blue finger deeper into the tiny little holes in her old boots. Shiro had laughed at her comment, but the girl didn’t seem to notice. 

Lance sat on a rock and was going completely off of the light from the flashlight Pidge had shoved in her pack last minute, or she would have completely forgotten it. 

The horde of Newly Deads had cost them a couple hours of daylights, and so they trudged through the woods in the pitch black, stopping for a break. 

Lance fell backwards off of the rock when a bright light shot into her eyes. “Quite wasting your batteries, moron.” Keith said as Lance hit the ground. 

“Bitch,” Lance grunted as she hit the ground, knocking the wind out of herself. “Guess the bonding moment’s over, huh?” 

Keith rolled her eyes, ignoring her as Pidge laughed. 

“Okay, knock it off, team.” Shiro said, helping Lance up. “We’ve lost a lot of daylight. We were supposed to spend the night in another ghost town to replenish our packs, but there's no way I’m leading my team into the city at night. That’s how we lose runners. We’ll set up camp in the woods for tonight, and head into town for food at dawn. Get everything you’ll need for the rest of the Run tomorrow, as it will be the last town we raid before we officially hit Galra territory.” 

The crew of teens and barley adults nodded grimly. 

“We should head deeper into the woods if we’re gonna spend the night,” Keith said. “The further we are from the town the less of a chance we have of getting some undead townies crashing our slumber party.” 

Lance smiled a bit at this comment, but quickly flicked off her flashlight when Keith glanced at her. She wouldn’t let her see it. 

“Good idea, Keith.” Shiro spoke, picking up his pack with his one arm. Lance sometimes caught Shiro out of the corner of her eye and jumped, completely forgetting the man's lack of appendage sometimes, as she was sure even Shiro himself did too. Only having one arm didn’t seem to affect his ability to kick ass at all. 

Shiro had lost his arm before Lance had become a Runner, so Lance wasn’t out in the field with him when it happened. Keith was, though. 

Lance just never asked. 

“Thanks a lot, Keith.” Lance grumbled as she followed Voltron deeper into the woods, the trees completely blocking out the moonlight and making it so you couldn't see a foot in front of you. “More walking into the zombie infested woods. Great idea.” 

Lance couldn’t see her, but she could just feel Keith roll her eyes. “Sorry, I’m just kind of getting sick of saving your ass from zombies, thought I’d save myself some trouble and limit the chances.” 

The others laughed. Tradors. 

“Leave her alone, Keith.” Pidge said, “she’s just upset because she is afraid of the dark.” she teased. 

“I am not!” Lance relaliated, face burning because she was certain that she heard Keith’s laughter mixed in with the crowds. 

A snap in the woods sent Lance tripping over herself and muffling a scream, grabbing onto the first person she could find in the dark and digging her nails in. 

Keith held her flashlight up to her own face so Lance could see the very unimpressed look she was wearing. 

Great. 

Keith moved her flashlight over to Pidge, who was laughing her head off and holding a dead stick she had broken in half. 

“I’m just messing with you, McClain!” Pidge laughed. 

Lance’s face burned with twice the intensity as she threw Keith’s arm down. “Jerk,” she bit towards the gremlin as she pushed past her, refusing to look at Keith. 

Voltron spent the rest of the walk in silence, going off of the light of their flashlights and following Shiro. Lance jumped at every little noise, doing her best to stop the sharp little gasps that escaped her every time there was any sort of noise in the woods. Even Hunk was doing better than her, and he was supposed to be the rookie! 

Still, it did not go unnoticed that Keith walked next to Lance until they set up camp. Lance wasn’t sure if Keith purposely pressed her shoulder against hers every time she jumped, as some form of reassurance, but Lance liked to believe that it was. 

It’s not like they were walking through zombie infested woods blind, right?! Nothing to be scared of. 

“Okay team,” Shiro spoke, stopping. “We’re far enough that the town shouldn’t be any sort of threat. Still, rest up, I’ll take the first watch, followed by Keith.” 

The man was received with sighs of relief as packs fell off of shoulders and onto the wooded ground. The packs were empty mosty, opting to get food on the road in ghost towns to conserve room for the medical supplies they were going to be carrying back. 

Lance shook off her green jacket, it being light enough for the sticky August night. Now she stood in her blue jean shorts and blue crop top. Though the exposed skin left lots of room for pine needles and other shrubbery to scratch at her, it was well worth it next to heat stroke. 

Lance had heard the whispers that floated around about her around The Garrison. That she was living her ‘apocalypse fantasy’ as some of the girls called it, saying she dressed more like a videogame character than anything. 

They called her outfits slutty and impractical. 

Lance was used to comments like these, she had gotten them even before the end of the world. She had a good body, and it had been making her peers jealous since puberty. Lance had opted to hiding her body to avoid these comments, and carried this habit with her even into the apocalypse. 

However on her second Run she had gotten heatstroke and had to be carried back. Shiro had to rip her shirt off in front of the whole squad, including Keith. Trust me, for someone who had to fight tooth and nail to become a Runner, it was not a good first impression. It was the most embarrassing moment of her life, including the time she vomited during training! 

Ever since then, comments on her outfits no longer stung like they used to. Her clothing was literally keeping her safe, and she was okay with that. 

Folding her jacket, Lance placed it against a rock and laid her head down on top of it. 

“Hey, Shrio,” Lance heard Keith’s voice speak in the dark. “I’m still pretty amped up from outrunning those Newly Deads, I can take the first shift.”

“Sure thing, Keith… What did you just call them?” Shiro's voice asked. 

Lance heard a small laugh that could only belong to Keith… her laughs were always small. “Oh that’s what Lance calls them, the freshly turned Biters that can run? I don’t know, I think it’s catching on.” 

“New Deads,” Shrio spoke with a slight chuckle. “The things that go through that girl's head.” 

Lance smiled to herself, nuzzling her head against her jacket and trying to imagine that the hard forest floor was a warm body holding her. That little trick got her through a lot of nights alone in her Papa’s truck, on nights even darker than these. 

……………. 

Lance closed her eyes tightly, trying to pretend like every little nose didn’t terrify her, and sent little shivers up her spine despite the warm temperature. 

Lance had always hated the dark, and she had always been coudled for it. Her parents had never refused her from crawling into their bed with them, Veronica had never once complained about the nightlight that lit their shared bedroom growing up, her brothers had always walked her to the bathroom or back to the tent at night when their family would go camping on weekends. 

No one coudled you in this world. 

Lance heard a snap much like the one that had caused her to grab onto Keith, hours earlier. “Pidge!” Lance hissed and she shot up, shining a flashlight on the sleeping girl to check if the teenager had been playing another trick on her. 

Noticing her fast asleep against Hunk, she quickly flicked the light off and let out a sigh. “Try not to wake the camp up, scaredy cat,” Keith deadpanned. 

Lance sighed, falling back onto her jacket. “I’m not scared,” she grumbled. 

“Yeah,” Keith snorted, “intimidating screams.” 

“It was a gasp, not a scream,” Lance remarked. 

“My bad.” 

“You are forgiven.” 

Silence passes between the pair for a moment, and only crickets and the sound of cold air filling the empty spaces. “Could you try not to die tomorrow, by the way?” Keith finally said, breaking the quiet. 

Lance laughed a bit despite herself. “Yeah, this really hasn’t been my Run, has it?” She chuckled as they whispered, referring to the fact that she had now almost died, like, three times. 

“Your second Run…” Keith mumbled. 

Lance bolted up from the ground and shot her flashlight into Keith’s eyes. “Hey! We never speak of that!” Lance hissed, making Keith laugh. “Besides, I dress like a whore now, problem solved.” 

“You don’t dress like a whore.” Keith said immediately, taking Lance aback because she honestly hadn't been expecting that. The way Keith said it, with no hesitation, like it was a fact. 

“Yeah, well,” Lance recovered, flicking her flashlight back off and laying back down, “try telling that to the boys back at camp.” Lance attempted to joke. 

“Okay,” Keith said again, immediately. Lance couldn’t help the thought of Keith beating up catcallers in her honour. She pushed the thought out as quickly as it had gotten there. That was something girlfriends did, not… not whatever they were. 

Lance sighed, “you’re too serious.” 

“You’re too immature.” Keith retaliated. 

Keith heard the sound of the earth russell beneath Lance as she stood and walked over to the girl who was perched against a rock. “You’re not immature enough,” Lance cooed as she sat next to Keith, their sides pressed together as Lance rested her head on Keith’s shoulder without permission, something she seemed to be doing a lot of lately. Still, Keith didn’t so much as protest. Lance flicked her flashlight back on, aiming it at a flat boulder a few meters away. 

And Lance began making shadow puppets. 

Keith started chucking, which Lance didn’t really expect. “Here, hold this!” Lance said, putting the flashlight in Keith’s hands. She was encouraged now at Keith’s laughter. Keith shone the flashlight as Lance made a dog and the bunny fight. She made a butterfly with wings that moved as if it could really fly away. 

Keith smiled, not really knowing why. Normally something like this would have pissed her right off. Normally, she would have ordered Lance to go back to sleep, that not everything was a stupid game. But the way has said it… ‘you’re not immature enough’. Well, she was kind of right.. This was fun, and Keith found herself wondering why she never had fun until Lance.

“How do you do that?” Keith asked. 

“Jeez Kogane, haven’t you ever been to a sleepover?” 

“No.” 

Lance laughed, “Keith darling, that literally explains so much.” 

Keith’s stomach fell deep into the forest ground when Lance had called her ‘darling’, but did her best not to show it. 

Lance’s head suddenly shot up from where it rested on Keith’s shoulder at the sound of a small and panicked scream.

Keith moved the light to the source of the sound immediately, as Lance jumped, pushing herself against the girl at the sound. Keith would never admit that she liked it when Lance was scared, because it meant she would press herself into Keith. 

The light landed on a panting and shivering Pidge. At first, Lance was furious, thinking it was another prank until she saw the kid looked terrified. “Matt!” The girl yelled as she shot up from where she slept. 

Lance often let Pidge crawl into her bed on nights like these, back at The Garrison, though it was just a little twin bed, when she had a nightmare. She was just a kid, remember. 

Keith had more than once wandered into Lance’s room late at night hoping for some sinful activities, and found her and Pidge fast asleep together, but she never questioned it. Voltron often forgot that she was sixteen, that Pidge had only thirteen and surviving on the outside with her family until they got split up, though she still to this day swears they were alive. 

Pidge should be cutting class in the library, and applying to M.I.T. She should become something smart like an engineer, or a scientist, or go to a freaking house party. But instead, she was in the middle of the woods, making maps to get medical supplies. 

“Lance?” Pidge whispered out in instinct. 

“Over here, gremlin!” Lance called out to her, and Keith didn’t know how she could hear the smile in Lance’s voice, but she could. 

Pidge walked over to the girls and Keith didn’t know why but she felt a little disappointed that her and Lance wouldn’t be alone anymore. She didn’t know why, she just did.

“What are you guys doing?” Pidge mumbled tiredly as she crawled over. Tired Pidge and awake Pidge were two different people, and reminded Lance of when she’d babysit her brother’s kids. By day they were little monsters, but by night they were snuggle bugs and somehow all sins were forgiven. 

“C’mere,” Lance whispered with open arms as Pidge sat down in front of her and didn’t even fight it when Lance wrapped her up in her arms from behind, cocooning the short teenager into herself. Keith was taken aback by how a friendship could be so close, and her heart hurt a bit because she didn’t really have that outside of her ‘brother’, Shiro. 

Maybe she was sort of getting that with Lance but… she didn’t want to jinx it. Keith had to remember that Lance hated her, that she was only a fuck buddy and nothing more. But still, on nights like these, when Lance would put her head on her shoulder when everyone else was asleep and make shadow puppets, well… Keith found herself forgetting that fact. 

“Check it out,” Lance whispered in Pidge’s short hair, as she made Keith focus the flashlight back onto the rock. “Once upon a time there was a bunny,” Lance spoke softly, making up the story as she went, just as she had done for Marco’s kids, lifetimes ago. Keith smiled and watched intently as Lance hosted a puppet show in the middle of the infested woods, Biters crawling everywhere, and Glara territory only miles away. But still, Keith smiled, and no one felt fear that night. 

Perhaps this distraction was welcome… only this one time of course. 

…………….. 

Finally day broke, and Voltron slowly made their way through the abandoned isles of an old grocery store. It had been almost completley raided after three long years of the end of the world, white shelves shining bare. But still they walked quickly, with all the precision of an armed officer. 

The walk through the town had been more like a run, there being more Biters then small towns like these usually did. Thankfully no Newly Deads, but the old, decaying Biters were just as dangerous when in large numbers. 

Hunk had finally proved himself as a Rookie Runner, taking out most of the horde, and even saving Keith’s ass when she found herself in a corner, and Hunk had body slammed five biters out of the way. 

Five! 

It goes on Lance’s list for top ten coolest kills. 

Lance had been surprised when Keith had pulled Hunk aside and thanked him, even saying that she was wrong about him. Lance didn’t know Keith possessed that power. 

Still, all five members of Voltron had somehow made it into Greenvills Grocery all intact. As usual, Keith and Lance took the left side, Shiro and the others scoped out the right. 

“Try to make sure you don’t leave any crazy people wandering around,” Lance mumbled as she pointed her gun down an empty hallway, watching Keith’s back. “You know, like last time.” 

That shouldn’t have hurt. 

It should have just been their normal banter, the jabs they threw at one another constantly in and out of the field. But Keith’s eyes found the bruises on Lance’s neck for the millionth time, and suddenly it wasn't just banter anymore. 

“Not my fault you can’t watch your back.” Keith bit, clearing another hallway. 

Lance gritted her teeth at that, sure, she knew she was useless, but Keith was the last person she wanted reiterating that point. “Not my fault my Second couldn’t clear a floor properly.”

Lance didn’t expect Keith to grab her arm, roughly swinging the girl around and pinning her back into the empty metal shelves, harder than Keith had intended.

Keith leaned into her face, breathing hot and heavy, but not the fun kind, the furious kind. Lance pretended like she wasn’t the slightest bit scared. “You’re just lucky I took the shot, Blue.” 

Lance was confused for a moment before getting her footing a bit under her, but Keith was still pressed against her, she was still trapped. She hated to admit that Keith was stronger than her… she didn’t have to rub it in! “Shiro took the shot,” Lance scoffed, referring to the previous night when she was choked out by a stray survivor. 

Keith’s face remained unchanged as she calmly and slowly shook her head ‘no’. Lance’s face softened, and Keith wouldn't admit how cute that was. Lance wasn't supposed to be cute! She was supposed to be hot. Hot, and annoying, and childish, and her mortal enemy, and nothing else! 

Still Lance’s face dropped at the realization, and her brown eyes widened. They somehow sparkled the way blue eyes did in the sun. Keith didn’t think she’d ever seen brown eyes sparkle before. “But, you’re a terrible shot.” Lance breathed, suddenly very aware of how close they were. 

Keith smirked a bit, “I know, I was trying to hit you.” 

Lance laughed, looking down a bit as she did, because Lance had always been the type of girl to look down when she laughed. Only, Keith was so close that her forehead landed a bit on Keith’s chest. Shooting up at the motion, they both pretended like they both weren’t blushing. 

“Thanks, Kogane.” Lance breathed, and was surprised that Lance had thanked her. It felt sort of… good? To be thanked and all… “I mean it, you really saved my-” 

Lance was cut off by chapped lips suddenly thrusting themself onto her, the same aggressive, fast way Keith liked to make out, on the rare occasion that she actually would. Only this time it was… different? Though Keith started out hot and fast, the way she always did because it had always just been about sex, halfway through she sort of… slowed down. And it was suddenly soft, and gentle, and a million times better. 

Lance seemed to be very aware now that she was pressed up against the shelfs, as Keith grabbed her bottom lip in her mouth and sucked. Lance couldn’t stop from moaning, and she could feel Keith’s shit eating grin at that. 

Lance couldn’t believe she had given that to her. 

Suddenly Keith broke away, still wearing that grin, but not once releasing her grip on Lance. “Clear!” Keith had called across the store to Shiro, as Lance completely forgot what they were doing. 

“Roger that!” Shrio called out from the other side of the store, thankful still out of sight. 

Keith cocked her head at Lance for a second, proud of the way the cuban girl was panting against her. “Bitch,” Lance whispered at the girl when she saw the look on her face. 

“Hey Shiro, you already check the back room?” Keith yelled. 

“Yup, all clear of Biters!” Pidge called. 

“Good,” Keith called back, “me and Lance are going to raid it for supplies!” 

Lane was confused until Keith grabbed her, opening the grey door right next to them that she hadn't seemed to notice. “Good idea!” Shiro called back to them, but it fell on deph ears. 

“Keith, what are you-” Lance asked, until she was pressed up again, this time thankfully against a wall, with no shelves to jab against her back. Keith’s mouth was on hers again. 

Fuck. When did she get so good at that? 

Pressed up against the wall in the backroom, Keith moved Lance’s back down the cement and into a small divot in the walls, a private little section where some cleaning supplies and a mop had been stored. As she moved Lance, Keith never let their lips part. 

“Thought you said no kissing?” Lance smiled against her mouth. 

“What?” Keith breathed, “you can break the rules but I can’t?” 

Lance laughed a bit, and went to pull back a bit, but Keith just pressed harder against her. “Okay, this was fun, but we are not fucking in a backroom with all of our friends ten yards away.” Lance laughed a bit, but loving Keith’s newfound passion. 

Since when had Keith liked kissing her? 

Keith smirked a bit at the girl, before quickly dragging her gloved hand across the crotch of Lance’s jeans. Lance gasped at the motion, jerking forward a bit only to collide with Keith’s chest once again. This time, she just pressed her head into the groove of Keith’s neck. “You sure about that?” Keith whispered into her hair, this time pressing her knee into Lance’s crotch, jerking it upwards so Lance fell off of Keith’s chest, her spine straight against the cold wall. 

Lance bit her lip with all her might, but could only half contain the moan that escaped from her. Keith smirked at that. Lance hating that Keith was winning. 

“Say you want it.” Keith commanded, pressing her knee harder into the girl and Lance gasped. Her feet almost weren’t touching the floor anymore. 

Lance was speechless, and could only nod. Keith smirked as she plunged her hand down the front of Lance’s shorts, fingers moving rapidly back and forth. Lance moaned as quietly as she could, and even, despite her pride, whispered out Keith’s name into the girls ear, and quickly learned how much of a reward that got her. 

“K-Keith,” Lance breathed into her shoulder, “I’m n-not about to cum next to a mop.” She said, referring to the fact that, Lance wasn’t quite sure how, but they were fucking in a backroom on a Run. 

Keith was supposed to hate Lance when they were on a Run, and yet, here they were. That fact alone made Lance’s head spin. 

Keith’s hand began moving at the speed of light, then, all at one, painfully slow. “Oh yes you are.” Keith smiled, loving the way Lance would bite her bottom lip, the way her eyes met with Keith’s before her head fell back into her shoulder. 

She had done this enough times to know when Lance was close. When she was right on the verge, Keith forced her fingers to moved painfully, playfully slowly in Lance pants, drawing small circles of pleasure. Keith leaned in close to Lance’s ear and whispered “Now, beg me.” 

“N-Never.” Lance bit into her shoulder. 

Keith’s hand then stopped all at once, and Lance all but growled against Keith’s skin. Her free hand went into Keith’s tangled black ponytail, frustratingly tugging. 

“P-please?” Lance mumbled into Keith’s shoulder, “oh my god, please Keith, please let me cum? I wanna cum so bad… please?” 

Keith had almost not expected her to do it, at least not so well. Keith almost came right then and there from the sound of Lance’s low, wispy voice begging with her name. Still, she somehow managed to keep her cool, and her upper hand. “Now was that so hard?” Keith cooed at the girl, before finishing the job, swirling her fingers around gently. 

Despite Keith’s power plays, Lance couldn’t remember a time where she had been so… gentle. 

Lance came so hard against her it made Keith believe she had faked it every other time. Lance's breath hitched, and she moaned deeply against the girl, her small hands grasping Keith’s hair as she finished.

They stood there like that, breaking heavily, Lance on her chest until the girl suddenly pulled away. Lance was disappointed at this motion, but didn’t show it. She had liked listening to Keith’s heartbeat. 

This time had been different! It has been soft, and fun and… better? Maybe Keith really had liked her after all? Not like Lance would have cared… 

Lance smiled up at her, only to see Keith looking down at her… both literally and figuratively. She stared at Lance's sweaty face, and unzipped jeans, and she suddenly didn’t feel sexy anymore, but insecure. The look Keith was giving her was more like she had just single handedly won a football game, not just made love. Keith looked… proud. Cocky. And all too much like that one guy had at that stupid Homecoming Dance. Like he had won. 

Lance suddenly came to the realization that she no longer had big brothers to beat someone up for her. 

“I could get used to you begging me.” Keith said in the cockiest tone imaginable. “Don’t think I won’t hold that over you, Snake Boots.” Was all she said, before turning and walking back through the door to meet up with the rest of the team, never once turning back. 

Lance let her back slide against the cement wall until she hit the ground, bringing her long, thin legs up to her chest. Lance wasn’t really sure why, but she cried. 

Sure she had had fun, but at what cost? 

Lance cried because she had forgotten that she was just play toy to Keith. For a second, a stupid, breif, regretful second when Keith was kissing her gentnly, like she had wanted to taste her, not ust fuck her, that Lance thought it might be something more. 

She would never make that mistake again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys the 5th season of She-ra just dropped I am NOT READY! Anyone else pumped? 
> 
> Leave a Kudos, and bookmark so you're ready for the next chapter! :) 
> 
> -M


	5. Overrun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Voltron makes their way back to the woods, the small town they had been taking refuge in quickly becomes overrun, and the team gets split up. 
> 
> Lance, Keith and Pidge end up barricading themselves in a music shop.

Lance wasn’t sure how long she’d been there, back against the cold cement, fly still unzipped, and wet eyes pressed into her knees, before she heard Pidge come looking for her. 

“Lance!” She yelled into the backroom of the small grocery store. “How long does it take to raid a back room for supplies- oh shit, you okay?” The girl asked upon seeing Lance. 

“You lied to me, Pigeon.” Lance mumbled into her knees. Pidge quickly made her way over to her friend, sitting in front of her. Pidge rested her head on Lance’s knees and looked at the girl.

“What are you talking about?” She asked, glancing down a bit and noticing Lance’s jean shorts were unzipped. When Keith had met up with the group a few minutes earlier, she had been wearing the cockiest grin on her face. 

Pidge put two and two together. 

“You said Keith liked me.” Lance breathed in a wispy, defeated voice as shiny brown eyes locked with Pidge’s. “I think Keith isn’t capable of liking someone.” 

“I’m sorry…” Pidge breathed, never really being good with people, but for Lance she’d make an exception. Lance was always her exception. Pidge couldn’t help the guilt well up inside of her for pushing Lance to believe something that had turned out to be false. She knew that she teased her about Keith too much, but she had really believed that the knife wielding maniac was head over heels for Lance. “People like Keith… they only ever survive. Inside and outside of the walls, she just-” 

“Survives.” Lance finished her sentence. 

“Yeah,” Pidge breathed. “I think you know what you gotta do, Lance.” 

The older girl sniffed a bit, wiping the back of her hand against her nose. “Yeah,” she cried a bit, but nodded though her tears, like she was getting her shit together and just needed a minute. Lance was just doing something that almost every girl in the world did, before or during the end of the world. Having a slight mental breakdown in the middle of the workday, crying it out, sucking it up, and dealing with it. What was that, if not to be a woman?

Lance had done it countless times in high school bathroom stalls. 

“I know,” Lance said, again, nodding, like she was holding herself to her words. “I’m never letting her in again. Not like that. I’m done, Pidge, I am so done convincing myself that she cares.” 

“I didn’t know you liked her like that,” Pidge admitted. 

“I don’t!” Lance yelled, sending Pidge back a bit. “Sorry… I don’t, I didn’t know I liked her like that either. Or well,” she said quickly standing up and pulling Pidge into a quick hug. “Come on, I’m gonna show you the best part about being a Runner.” 

…….. 

Keith felt a weird, falling feeling in her stomach. 

It was like she was sick. 

It was like a horde was on their tail, and Lance’s bootlaces got wound around a root. 

It was like when a stranger burst out of a closet just when they had let their guard down, and out of everyone, he grabbed Lance. 

Keith didn’t like it.

She had just fucked Lance… no, that for some reason wasn’t the right word anymore. Made love? Can you even ‘make love’ when you weren’t in love? What were the rules? Were there rules anymore? 

Keith didn’t know what came over her. All she knew was that she had to kiss Lance. She had never felt that way before! So, of course, she played it off. 

“Don’t think I won’t hold this over you.” She heard herself say to the gorgeous girl she was still pinning to the wall, before leaving without turning back. Why didn’t she turn back? Was she afraid of what she might see? 

The truth was, she just had to get out of there! When Lance’s back was to the wall, but her head was on Keith’s shoulder, dozing in the sweet after sex high that they both felt, it was just like the ‘no sleeping in the same bed after fucking’ rule they had, and Keith realized that they had officially broken single every rule. 

Without rules, it was a relationship. Something Keith couldn't afford to have in this world. 

It had been their third day walking through the woods and killing zombies, but still, Lance had the audacity to smell like pineapples and cinnamon. 

“What are you smirking about?” Shiro asked when she had returned to the front of the store with the others. 

“Nothing.” Keith had said quickly. 

“Any supplies back there?” Shiro asked. 

“What?” 

Pidge rolled her eyes, “supplies. You know? The one thing you were back there for?” 

“Oh right, that.” Keith said, “Lance was pissing me off so I left,” she lied. 

Shiro sighed deeply, like a tired Dad who couldn't believe all of the coffee was raided from this god forsaken store. “Pidge, go out back and help Lance. And Keith, you leave your partner again then this is your last Run.” The man threatened, as Pidge went out back.

……… 

Keith couldn’t help but be excited, despite herself. She tried to push it down, pretending it wasn’t there, but her stomach buzzed like a kid on Christmas Eve every time she saw Lance’s head in her shoulder. This had been different! It had been fun, and sweet, and slow. Lance had begged her for god's sake! 

Keith was sure she had felt it too! 

Which is why it surprised her so much that Lance was ignoring her.

Pidge and Lance finally came out of the backroom, they too having forgotten the supplies they were supposed to be back there for. “Hey-” Keith had said to them as they passed her, but Lance just pushed her out of the way with her shoulder.

The pair went down the beauty aisle of the grocery store, and Keith watched as they giggled, grabbing colourful eye shadows, black liner, and other small goodies that they could fit into their packs. Things girls wouldn't admit to missing in the apocalypse. 

“You’re not seriously going to waste pack space on that, are you?” Keith asked. 

Lance ignored her, thumbing her way through various lip glosses. “Leave us alone, buzzkill.” Pidge said, but of course, Keith didn’t listen. 

“Close your eyes,” Lance said to Pidge as she sat the shorter teen onto a stool, shaking some liquid eyeliner. “Let’s see if I still remember how to do this!” she laughed, Pidge squealing at the comment. 

“Wanna look good for the zombies?” Keith asked, attempting to joke but, as usual, it came out harsher than intended. She had to work on that… 

“It’s called fun, Keith.” Lance bit out, the first words she had spoken to the girl. What was Lance’s problem? Just when she had though they were maybe getting somewhere, Lance had to go and do this! “Now I understand why no one ever invited you to a sleepover.” 

Woah. Where had that come from? This is why Keith didn’t open up to anyone. People would only ever use it against you. 

“Bitch,” Keith said as she spun on her heel and left. Lance didn’t think Keith’s curse words have ever stung this much. 

Nonetheless, she gave Pidge winged eyeliner suitable for any gay bar. 

Wasting away their time, Keith listened to the two Runners laugh and did makeup from the few aisles down. Keith sat with the boys while they had fun, and didn’t let herself wonder how the apocalypse and High School could be so similar. 

………… 

“Voltron, let’s move out!” Shiro called to the group, Pidge and Lance stuffing their packs with a few small goodies that wouldn’t get in the way, including one bottle of perfume each, three nail polishes, and of course, lip gloss. The best thing about being a Runner was getting things that The Garrison didn’t supply. 

As the girls rounded the counter, shoving some last minute bottles of water into their packs that they had, quinsadently, found out back, Hunk gave the two a low whistle. “Looking good, ladies!” He called over, making them laugh. 

Pidge and Lance went on either side of Hunk and placed a lipstick infused kiss on both of his cheeks, leaving behind prominent red stains. 

Hunk tried to pull away, but Lance climbed on top of the man, pinning him to the floor and littering his face in kisses. Hunk laughed, trying to push his friend off. “What are you laughing at?” Pidge glared at Shiro who was laughing at Hunk, and before he knew it Pidge was scaling the man like a tree and planting some lip gloss on him. 

“Pidge!” Shiro called, trying to pry her off, but just ended up tripping himself as the pair fell. Pidge laughed from on top of the man's chest. 

It was the calm before the storm, the moments of fun that you could have in knowing that there was a very good chance not everyone in your crew would make it back with you. 

Moments like these reminded Keith of the World War One documentaries she had been forced to watch in public school history class. There had been this one scene that always stuck with her. There were a bunch of men, well, boys really, kids, just like them… They were sitting in the bowels of a ship. They were all scared, they were going to D- Day, but still, they smoked cigarettes, and sang songs with no rhythm, arms around one another in comradery. Keith always thought she would experience that same type of sacred brotherhood, mostly because she had wanted to join the army after high school. Instead, she had this. 

But Keith couldn’t help but stare at Lance, lip gloss dripping down her chin from tormenting her friend, her laugh ringing through the small store. Her heart fell down to her stomach, and she wasn't sure if she liked the feeling or not. 

Yeah Lance was pretty but… Keith had never seen her like this. Blue eyeshawn graced her brown skin like it was just meant to be there. She wore black eyeliner that looked like she had spent hours on it, not minutes in an ill-lit store, with a reflective surface and Pidge’s guidance. 

She sparkles, with pink cheeks and gold highlighter. 

Keith had to shake her head from staring at her, reminding herself that there was nothing more to the girl than a pretty face, even if she didn’t believe it. 

“Quit staring, let’s move.” Lance mumbled to Keith as she pushed past her. Keith shook her head from her thoughts as she realized everyone had already moved out. The calm was over. 

Keith let anger bubble up, anger masking pain, because she had thought, for a second there, that Lance had maybe liked her. “You think a lot of yourself Princess.” She whispered harshly into her ear, skinny fingers digging in tighter to brown skin with each world, though Keith didn’t notice. “Remember who was the one begging.” 

Lance’s face burned. The others had already walked ahead, and somewhere distant Shiro’s voice echoed for them, but Lance couldn’t move. Tears came once again to her eyes, and if Lance still prayed she would have asked for them not to fall. 

Lance jerked her arm back away from Keith as harshly as she could. “You don’t get to touch me anymore.” 

………

Surprise, surprise, walking through a town during a zombie apocalypse wasn’t as easy said as done. 

Voltron walked in silent formation, Shiro leading the group, and Keith behind the group. 

That’s when they started coming. Hordes came from every street exit of the small town. Was horde even the right word? No, bundles of the undead walked in groups, pouring from every exit and entrance, from every old shop, from every home. 

“Split up, meet by the rocks!” Shiro ordered them, referring to where they had made camp the previous night. 

Or at least, that’s all they could assume that’s what he meant, as there was no time for further explanation, because before they knew it, in the town square a horde began chasing Shiro and Hunk down one path, the pair throwing shots over their shoulders as they made their way to a fire escape. 

“This way!” Keith yelled, Lance grabbing Pidge’s hand tightly in hers and pulling her as they chased after Keith down sidewalks and through alleyways. 

The town had been completely overrun. 

The streets reminded Lance of the town Gillmore Girls took place in. Her and her sisters used to watch it every day after school. 

They ran past destroyed store fronts and burnt out cars. It seemed as though not a single window stood intact in this town, glass littering the streets they ran on. Okay fine! So maybe boots were a good idea… 

As they ran, following Keith, Lance noticed a store that had been boarded up, all but barricaded. I guess one person in that town knew what was up. She stopped dead in her tracks on the sidewalk, forcing Pidge to jolt to a stop with her as she had been holding the teens hand. 

“Keith, here!” Lance yelled over her shoulder as she took down two Newly Deads that had been on their tail, about eleven more coming around the corner. 

Keith followed her eyes to the store, evaluated her plan, and quickly yelled back to the girls, “No! Keep running, we’ll loop back around to the woods!” 

“There’s too many of them, Keith!” Lance yelled back, taking out another Newly Dead as Pidge worked on getting the boarded up door open. Pidge knew what helping Lance meant. She knew they were disobeying, but Keith had clearly never seen a town like this. 

“Come on!” Keith yelled back to them, as she watched Lance then shoot the lock to the door of the shop, and body slammed it open. Keith growled, backtracking to catch up with them, stabbing a few more Biters as she did so. 

“No!” Lance yelled back as she got the shop open. 

Furious did not even begin to describe Keith. 

The second the door was open Lance shoved Pidge in. “What the fuck do you think you doing, McClain?!” Keith yelled, but Lance grabbed her wrist and harshly jerked the girl into the store just as the voices got louder, confused footsteps tripping over one another as they clawed their way after women’s sent. 

Lance knew she was breaking protocol. Keith was their Second, and Shiro was MIA, which made Keith their Head. Heads were always supposed to go through doors last when being chased, much like how a captain was expected to go down with their own ship. Still, Lance couldn't bring herself to care at that moment. 

Heads were supposed to call the shots. Lance should have followed, but what were they supposed to do, keep running? The town was overrun! She found shelter and she took it. 

Lance slammed the thin door behind her, heavily barricaded with wooden scraps. Lance looked around just in time to see an old music shop, dusty and forgotten, but not raided as there was nothing of value. 

Just as Lance was inside she noticed little Pidge attempting to drag over a piano to barricade the door with. Keith reluctantly helped her, and Lance all but had to jump out of the way as the instrument slammed into the entrance. 

Lance’s head was swimming with adrenaline and fear, and could barely compute the all too familiar action of her wrist being grabbed too tightly, as Keith began shaking the cuban girl like a rag doll. 

“What the fuck, Lance!” Keith yelled, despite the situation, as growls and screams began passing by the boarded up window, the Biters not noticing Voltron ducking into the music shop. 

So, Lance’s plan had worked. 

Still, Keith was seething. What Lance had just pulled could get a dishonorable discharge from being a Runner. Keith kept shaking the girl, until her back found a wall, and the air in her lungs lost its way. It brought back too many memories of earlier that day, when she thought she could be anything to Keith other than the annoying Runner she had begged Shiro to kick off their squad only days before. Still, Keith yelled. 

“You think just because I fuck you, you can go and disobey me in the field?” Keith somehow shouted through clenched teeth. 

Pidge clawed at her back, trying to pull her from Lance. “Keith, calm down!!” Pidge hissed, keeping her voice low as the Biter’s footsteps from outside got louder and louder, growing in numbers walking down the street. 

Keith pulled Lance from the wall and slammed her up against it once more before the girl finally came back to Earth, letting out a sharp cry as she hit the wall. Keith felt regret well up in her check but pushed it back down. If Lance had pulled that little stunt with Shiro, the man would have done far worse to her. 

“Get off of me!” Lance shouted, too many memories of that mourning coming back. She pushed Keith with all of her might, and the girl stumbled back a bit. 

This only fed her anger, and Lance for a brief second feared Keith might just kill her as she stormed towards her, Pidge trying to grab her but Keith just flung her arm, sending Pidge tripping over the piano’s bench and onto the ground, coated in three years worth of dust. 

Lance let out a little scream that she muffled with a cry, squeezing her eyes tight and holding her hands up in front of her, preparing for what might come. 

Keith stopped immediately at this, not being able to will herself forward at the sight of Lance pressed up to the wall in fear, in fear of her… 

“Quit your crying, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Keith barked with an annoyed eye roll. 

Lane sucked in a sharp breath, eyes no longer closed, but glaring. Keith didn’t think she had seen Lance glare before. “Well sorry, you were charging at me like a bull!” 

“You went against direct orders, Lance! When I report you to Iverson that’s twenty lashings!” Keith yelled, referring to The Garrison’s form of discipline, as you couldn’t exactly have prison in this world. 

Lance held her stare, but her face got noticeably paler. “You wouldn’t.” 

“Watch me.” Keith sneered. 

“Keith,” Lance breathed, like she was so desperately trying to keep her cool but was one more word away from completely losing her shit. Pidge sensed this and scurried up from the floor, placing herself between the deranged couple as Lance took a step closer. “That wasn’t just a horde. This town is overrun. I’ve seen shit like this, I’ve survived shit like this. You know, like in the two years I survived out here on my own, while you and your brother were building The Garrison.” Her words dripped with venom and truth. 

“Hey, you don’t know anything about me!” Keith sneered, trying to take a step closer but Pidge was right there, placing a hand on her chest when she tried to. 

“I know that you never once had to survive outside of those walls.” Lance spoke low and cool, like a summer night's breaze. “I know that you were in The Garrison since day one. I know that you’ve never seen a town like this.” Lance stood there, eyeing Keith up and down slowly, with brown eyes that were practically on fire. Keith had never seen this side of Lance, and hated to admit that it scared her a lot more than what was outside of those walls Lance so geniously barricaded. “And I know you’re a shit leader.” Lance finished. 

Keith felt like she had been shot. Lance had just taken every single thing she prayed everyone wasn’t thinking, and gave validation to her biggest insecurities. She recovered quickly, chewing on Lance’s facts before she retaliated with some different ones. “Shit leader or not, that was insubordination. This will be your last Run.” 

Lance didn’t even try to stop the tears that sprang to her eyes. It was like she wasn’t ashamed of them, something that baffled Keith, but that she also envied. Lance didn’t care if the world knew she had emotions. “I’d rather be insubordinate then dead.” 

“Guys!” Pidge yell-whispered. “I get it, this is going to be a big deal once we get back to civilization, but as of right now, we are far from it, so could you two keep it the hell down!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but new one up tomorrow!  
> If you like Genderbent Klance and need another quarantine read, I have ANOTHER Genderbent Klance story called 'It Wasn't Easy To Be Happy For You'. Check it out! https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301016/chapters/55808257  
> See ya tomorrow!  
> -M


	6. Insubordinate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pidge and Keith bonding I know you've all been secretly hoping for. 
> 
> Barricaded in the small music shop in an overrun Greenvill, Keith learns a thing or two about the outside world, and debates on what to do with Lance.

The women of Voltron sat with their backs to the barricade, listening in silence as what once were people clawed their way through the small University town of Greenvill. 

“Hey, Pidge.” Lance whispered, still adamantly ignoring Keith, who was sitting right next to her. “Remember how this was supposed to be a three day mission?” 

Pidge laughed a bit at the grimness of the situation, as Lance too chuckled into her knees. This was their third day. 

They were supposed to be reaching the Altea Hospital for their supplies by now, where they had a car stored. Depending on Galra, they would have taken their burner car to Daisy, and been home by dinner. 

But things never really went to plan for Voltron, now did they? 

“Yeah,” Pidge whispered back. “Stupid zombies, always getting in the way.” Keith smirked a bit at this, but Lance pretended not to notice. 

She sighed, standing up. “I’m going to explore,” Lance declared, as it wasn’t every day you got locked in a music store during the end of the world. 

“No, you’re not.” Keith said as Lance stood, “you’re going to stay put, because the second this horde starts to clear out, we’re running for it and meeting up with the boys.” 

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Lance scoffed, “that isn’t a horde! This town is overrun, Mullet. They’re not gonna clear out, so I’m going to explore until our mighty ‘leader’ comes up with a plan to get us out of here.” 

“No, you’re not.” Keith growled, standing up and grabbing Lance’s wirst. It was still bruising from the last time she had grabbed it. 

Lance hissed a bit, but pulled Keith in close as the motion so they were nose and nose. “This is my last Run, I at least need to have a little fun before I never see the outside world again.” Lance said, breaking free from Keith. She spun on her heel, and slipped through the doors to the back before Keith could protest. 

It was almost like her words had surprised Keith. Like Keith hadn't yet realized it until then, but Lance would no longer be a member of Voltron. 

Not only would she get a dishonorable discharge, but she would be strapped to a post in the middle of The Garrison while Iverson whipped her bare back, twenty times, the price of going against direct orders. 

The thought of Iverson’s face, the smirk he would have when he did it, made Keith sick. He had it out for Keith since day one, and thus, everyone Keith associated with. 

“Finally got your wish, huh?” Pidge spoke up from where she sat next to the barricade. Keith had forgotten she was there for a moment, and realized this was the first time her and Pidge had been in the same room alone together. 

“Huh?” Keith asked, giving up on Lance and going to sit back next to the girl. 

“You know, your wish.” Pidge shrugged, “it’s no secret that you’ve been trying to get Lance thrown out of the Runner house. You think she’s a distraction in the field.” Pidge said, Keith nodding at her words, lost in the memory of only four days ago when she had been yelling at Shiro. ‘Shiro, she’s gonna get herself killed one of these days... Or worse, me!’ Four days felt like four lifetimes at this point. 

“Well,” Pidge continued. “She finally did it, she finally screwed up. You can finally get rid of her.” Pidge was clearly upset, Keith had at long last had leverage to get Pidge’s ‘big sister’ thrown off of Voltron. “You know, besides the fact that she saved all of our lives,” the small girl bit.

Keith should have known better than to try to have a conversation with Pidge. “If it hadn't been for Lance trapping us in Biter territory, we could have made it on foot, looped around, and already met up with Shiro and Hunk by now,” Keith huffed. “Thanks to Lance, we’re either dead, or adding another day onto this mission.” 

Pidge scoffed a bit, “boy, it really shows you never had to survive out here alone.” 

“I am so sick of people bringing that up!” Keith hissed, “while you were out here eating cold beans and running from town to town, I helped do something good. I helped make a camp that people like you came running to! You and Lance risked your lives to come to a camp that wouldn't exist without me! And what do I get for it? People thinking I’m a shit survivor because of it.” 

Pidge breathed out deeply, finally turning to face the woman she was sitting next to. “No one’s saying you’re not a damn good survivor, Keith. And Lance was wrong, because you’re not a shit leader. I mean, we’re gotten this far, haven’t we? We’re just saying that because you were saving our asses when we didn’t even know it, building The Garrison, you missed out on a whole bunch of knowledge about the outside that’s kept people like me and Lance alive. And instead of listening to us, or learning from us, you fight twice as hard to prove yourself, to state your authority, and you come across as an ignorant bitch.” 

Keith sat there absorbing the information that the kid had just spewed at her. “I… uh, never thought of it that way.” Keith admitted, “I was just so used to people not liking me from when the world wasn’t… this, that by the time it all went to Hell, I just didn’t care anymore.” 

“I can vouch for that.” Pidge said, an airly laugh escaping her. “Back before all of this, I was thirteen and in my senior year of high school.” 

Keith’s dark, violet eyes grew at her words. “No way!” She choked because she knew the kid was smart but… damn. 

“Yeah!” Pidge laughed, “child prodigy, some lot of good it did me!” She said, gesturing to the dusty store around them. “Still, I think it was safe to say that I wasn’t ‘miss popularity’. Still, even though I didn’t have any friends in that lifetime, outside of my brother, I have people like Lance, and Hunk, and your brother now. Somehow, that’s kind of better.” Pidge said, and Keith had to remind herself that she was talking to a sixteen year old at the wisdom in the child's words. 

“How?” Keith asked, “don’t you find it dangerous making friends, connections, when the world’s like this? They could just die in your arms tomorrow.” Keith said, speaking from experience. 

“Or I could be dying in their arms,” Pidge said. “I guess it’s just nice to know that if I die, I’ll have people to miss me, y’know? Sure, when I lost my brother and my parents out there, I was devastated. Hell, I was fourteen and alone. Like really, truly, alone. But I still know they’re out there. The way I see it, if I didn’t make connections, if me and my brother hated each other like normal siblings, and if me and my parents weren’t really that close, they probably wouldn't be looking for me. They’d just assume I was dead, and go about their lives. But because I made those connections despite the odds, I know that they’re looking for me, and I’m looking for them. So eventually, we’ll find each other.” Pidge smiled, her optimism surrounded in childlike innocence, but her words ringing wise. 

“Wow….” Keith breathed, feeling the anger leave her body for the first time since they had entered the store. “That’s a… really good point.” If Keith was being honest, the last thing in the entire world she wanted to do was report Lance. 

“For a dumb kid, you mean.” Pidge said, referring to one of their first interactions when Keith had been yelling at Shiro, saying how she didn’t want a ‘kid’ going on Runs with them. It was the day Pidge had barged in and handed her ass to her, Lance laughing from the doorway. Though Keith had masked it with anger, that was the day that Pidge had earned her respect. And the day that Keith had learned Lance’s laugh was her favourite sound in the world. She didn’t ‘visit’ Lance’s room for a week after that. Lance had assumed she was mad at her for laughing, but the truth was, Keith just didn’t know what to do with that information. 

Since that day, every time Lance had laughed in the field on a Run, she had berated her, yelling at her to be more serious, that she had to grow up. But really, it was because Keith couldn’t focus on the mission with the stupid cuban girls laughter in her ears. It made her heart race, and her cheeks burn. So, Keith yelled instead of joining in. It made for a lonely existence. 

Keith laughed a bit, “yeah. Sorry about that. You know, I just realized this is the first conversation we’ve ever had where we weren’t screaming at eachother.” 

Pidge laughed at this, “yeah, I guess you’re right… wanna start over, Second?” 

Keith smiled a bit. Was this that ‘connection’ Pidge had been talking about? Because it felt good. “Yeah, I’d like that.” She said, sticking out her hand for Pidge to shake. “Hi, nice to meet you, I hear you’re going to be on my squad from now on, glad to have your expertise.” Keith said, saying all the things she wished she had said that first day, instead of lashing out. “My name is Katlinea Kogane, but I go by Keith. I’m your Second, and as of right now, your Head. I’ll try not to lead us into utter doom.” 

Pidge laughed a little, never seeing this side of Keith before… this side that was, human. Pidge had finally understood how Lance had fallen for Keith. Finally she saw what the girl was like when she wasn’t constantly trying to prove herself. It finally made sense how Lance had gotten so hurt by her. She was like a venus fly trap, she could open up, but you never knew when she was going to close herself off again. Still, Pidge shook her hand, “nice to meet you, Kogane. I’m Katie Holt, but my friends call me Pidge.” 

“Glad to know ya.” Keith said, making Pidge laugh once more. 

“Careful Keith, your Texas is showing.” 

Keith smiled, something small, and barely noticeable to people that weren’t Lance or Shiro. Still, Keith knew that she was smiling, and that was good enough for her. Baby steps. 

“Hey Keith, since you’ve never…. You know, survived out here before, can I give you some advice?” Pidge asked, careful to tread lightly as she knew how quickly Keith could turn. Still, seeing this side of Keith, Pidge could finally understand how Lance had fallen for her. When she wasn’t playing drill sergeant, she was kinda cool. 

Keith breathed some hair from her face, “yeah, sure. Just between us, I think I could really use it.”

Pidge laughed a bit at this. “Well,” she spoke, “this isn’t a ghost town like we thought. That isn’t a horde out there. Like Lance has been saying, this town is overrun, meaning it is crawling with Biters. It’s like twenty hordes all in one. It’s something you see sometimes in small towns like these, where no one evacuated back when America first started to shut down. So, the entire town turned. We got in at night, so they must hide indoors then, because we made it into the town no problem last night. Our best bet is to wait for the sun to go down, they should disappear again. But they aren’t going to clear out like a horde would. We leave, we die.” 

“What do you mean… they hide at night?” Keith asked, “Biters are brainless.” 

“Well, that’s the thing,” Pidge said quickly, crossing her legs and scooting in front of Keith, excited to finally have a listening pair of ears for her zombie theories. “Surviving out here for so long as a kid I discovered some things. Like in overrun towns, and even in some hordes when they’re big enough, when the Biters are with the same Biters for long enough they start to… strategize? I don’t know, it’s weird, but it’s evolutionary. I think that the Biters here realized that if they hide at night, then survivors like us will just assume it’s a ghost town and make camp, like we did last night. So when the sun goes down, we should be able to make a run for it!” 

“Jesus, kid.” Keith breathed, “they’re evolving? That’s… terrifying. How did you never tell me all this before?” 

“You wouldn’t listen.” Pidge deadpanned, “you know, ignorant bitch and all?”

Keith let out a harsh laugh. “Right, right. Sorry.” 

“There is… one more thing,” Pidge breathed out. “And don't be mad at this part, okay?” 

“Scouts honour,” Keith rolled, flashing a hand sign. 

“Well, I’m not just saying this because she’s my friend, but Lance was right to pull us in here for cover. If we were to keep running and loope around like you wanted, we would have been dead in minutes, or at least split up. I should know, it was a town like this where me and my family got split up,” Pidge breathed. 

“Damnit,” Keith breathed, punching the hardwood floor with a gloved hand. “I hate it when she’s right.” 

Pidge smiled, “don’t worry, it doesn’t happen often.” Keith breathed out a bit of a laugh. “Hey Keith… You’re not really gonna report her, are you?” Pidge asked. 

Keith sighed, shifting her weight on the dirty ground to stand. “Honestly Pidge, I don’t know. Even though she saved our asses… it was still insubordination. What if this store had been full of Biters? What if she couldn’t get the door open? This could have easily gone south.” She said as she stood up, Pidge’s eyes fell to the floor at her words. “But insubordinate or not, I still have to find her. I’m still the Head, and she’s still missing. Stay here until we get back, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” Pidge nodded as Keith made her way to the backroom. “Hey, Keith? Be careful with her, okay? I shouldn’t be telling you this but, you really hurt her.” 

Keith was taken aback. It seemed as though she was always hurting people by mistake. That was precisely why she just stopped getting involved with them. “How?” She scoffed, the old, defensive Keith beginning to resurface. “I mean, I thought we were finally getting somewhere,” Pidge made eyes at her, “not... not that I wanted to get somewhere… but she’s been ignoring me all day!” 

“You still don’t get it, do you, Dingus?” Pidge shot, “she likes you. Duh.” 

Keith had to remind herself that, despite all the progress her and the kid had just made, Pidge was still a little shit disturber. She couldn’t trust her words to be true no matter how bad she wanted them to be. “Yeah right. This is Lance McClain we’re talking about, right?” 

Pidge put her hands up in surrender. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I don’t know what went down between you two, but when I went to help Lance with the supplies, I caught her crying in the backroom.” Were her words supposed to make Keith want to melt into the floor? Because they did. She had always just assumed she had meant nothing to the almighty force that was Lance. “Now I don’t know what kinky shit you were doing, but it seems to have gotten her. I’m telling you this for your own good, Kogane, you’re on thin ice.” 

Keith swallowed, nodding a bit. “Duly noted.” She said, going to the backroom to collect their third member.

“And Keith?” Pidge called, one last time. 

“What?” She barked, finally understanding why Lance called her ‘gremlin’. 

“You don’t deserve her.” 

Keith rolled her eyes as she walked away. Only when she was sure Pidge was out of earshot, she mumbled, only to herself, “I know. That’s the problem.” 

…………….

Keith opened the door to the small back room of the music store, it being small and packed tightly with boxes of guitar strings and clarinet reeds. There was a small break room in the corner, with a little plastic fold up table next to a white fridge that just screamed ‘Nineties!’ and a big, out of place wooden wardrobe that belonged in the movie Narnia, and Narina only. And there sat Leocadia McClain in the flesh, and the rest of the room faded away. 

She sat with her back to the door, sitting on a wooden box that would never get unpacked by wanna-be musicians. She had taken the lower part of her braids out, pulling them into a ponytail that was still braided at the top. The days of the tight braids, sun, and sweat forced the now free hair into beautiful curls that had no place in the apocalypse. 

Lance sat, quietly strumming an old guitar that she must have spent the last twenty minutes getting into tune. She strummed some basic cores lightly, having been very out of practice. 

Still, you wouldn't be able to tell. She stummed and sang in a language Keith did not understand. Her voice seemed to bounce in perfect correlation with each sting, almost like her and the guitar were old friends having a conversation. 

Keith couldn’t remember the last time she had head music. 

For the first time in too long, her heart didn’t feel so heavy as she listened to Lance’s voice, the same voice she used to cringe at when she heard it coming around the corner, the same voice she had told on countless occasions to shut up. Her voice turned into hums, and finally the floorboard beneath Keith began to creak. 

Lance shot up, guitar falling in a heap at her feet as she drew her pistol. “Jesus!” Lance exasperated as she lowered her gun from Keith. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to sneak up on people in the zombie apocalypse?!” 

“I, uh… no. Mom actually missed that lesson. Sorry.” Keith said. 

Lance rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Mullet? Has the ‘horde’ finally started clearing out, or did you realize that this town is overrun and we have to start finding a different way out?” 

“I just came to say,” Keith said, but was cut off by the smashing of glass. 

“We’ve got company!” Pidge yelled as the pair ran towards the sound. There, behind the cash register, was a small window no one thought to board up. They had not noticed it until now. 

Angry arms clawed their way in and began grasping. “We can’t let them know we’re here!” Lance said quickly. “This place is overrun, if they see us we’re dead! Hide, if they walk around and don’t see anything, they’ll leave!” 

“How do you know that?” Keith questioned as Lance grabbed Pidges’s shoulders and pushed her towards a timpani drum. 

“Because I’ve survived towns like these!” Lance bit, peeling the top off of the drum and forcing Pidge inside it. 

“What about you?” Pidge asked quickly, realizing there wasn’t enough room for the both of them. 

“We’ll hide outback!” Lance said quickly, as one Biter was already halfway in the store, with about a million more on its tail. “Stay quiet, if we hear shots, we’ll come running!” She said to Pidge as she slipped the top back onto the drum. Grabbing Keith's wrist, they ran into the backroom just as one of the Biters fell to the ground to the store. Closing the door quietly behind them, they looked around. 

“Wardrobe!” Keith whispered quickly, pulling Lance towards it. Keith stepped in, but there was almost no room. There were boxes piled to the left of it, leaving only half of the wardrobe for them to hide in. 

“No way.” Lance bit, looking at the space. Just then, the door slammed open, and the pair was met with the smell of a rotting person, and the screams that could only belong to one who did not know they were dead. 

Keith was no longer asking. She grabbed Lance and pulled her in, closing the door behind her. 

It was dark, and smelled like old coats and mothballs. Lance was literally in Keith’s arms, with no room to pull away. 

Keith’s arms were wrapped tightly around the girl in a forced hug as more and more undead voices filled the space between them. 

“Just to be clear, I hate this more than you,” Lance whispered into Keith’s chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Cow, 30 Kudos for a Genderbent Klance story?? Are you freaking KIDDING ME? You guys ROCK.   
> Again, if you like Lesbian Klance, read my three-shot! :) https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301016/chapters/55808257


	7. The Wardrobe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith shows a different side of herself when trapped in the wardrobe with Lance. Stranded and hiding in the music store, and outnumbered a hundred to one, the girls hatch a plan to make it out of the store and find their way back to Hunk and Shiro, as The Garrison desperately awaits for them to return with the Altean Medical applies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I SWEAR I AM NOT GETTING BORED OF WRITING THIS STORY! I'm so sorry for the stupidly long wait, this story is SO fun to write! Thanks for your patience! This chapter is a lot of post-apocalyptic fluff, so enjoy!

The closet was hot, sweaty, and close. 

Too close.

Keith and Lance were forehead to forehead, forced to look into each other's eyes, breathing hard from the adrenaline. Lance had shot daggers with her, but Keith’s looked wide, soft, and sorry. Lance had given up as quickly as she had started. 

“Hi,” Keith mouthed in the dark, just enough light seeping in through the crack of the two wooden doors for Lance to make it out. “How’s it going?” She smiled jokingly, Pidge’s words still ringing in her ears. ‘She likes you, Dingus.’ 

Lance let out a soft breath of laughter as she read the girls lips. Damn Keith, reeling her back in that easily. Keith’s heart jumped out of her fucking chest at the fact that she could make Lance laugh so effortlessly. 

Lance’s breath brushed against Keith’s cheek, jostling the baby-hairs framing her face, and the older girl prayed that Lance couldn’t see her blush in the dark. 

“Hi,” Lance mouthed back, and Keith was happy for the excuse to stare at Lance’s lips. “Pretty good, might catch a movie later, how about you?” 

Keith laughed back. The sound of undead murmurs seemed to somehow become background music, white noise that was easily forgotten. They had heard no shots, which meant Pidge was okay, her small body still hidden in the timpani drum Lance had shoved her into. 

Lance jumped a bit in Keith’s arms when they heard the door to the back room smash in, voices now louder as they filled the small break room of the music store. 

Lance bit back a cry. She had bullets, sure, but they were cornered. They were found, they were dead. 

Lance, without a second thought how she and Keith had just been screaming at each other minutes ago, of how Keith had almost just killed her, of how Keith was adamantly trying to destroy her career as a Runner, buried her face into Keith’s shoulder. She breathed in Keith’s soft scent of leather and deodorant, and pressed in further when she heard another aggravated scream as a lifeless body as it hit itself against a wall. 

Much to Lance’s surprise, she felt Keith’s strong arms tighten her arms around Lance’s waist, comforting her. Lance didn’t realise she was shaking until Keith felt a need to tighten her grip around the fabric of Keith’s shirt. 

Keith had never wanted to kill a Biter more, for the soul reason that it was scaring Lance. Keith wondered where the hell that thought came from. She had never felt this protective over someone, not even Shiro. 

As her grip tightened, Keith prayed that Lance couldn’t hear her heart beating hard against her chest as Lance’s cold nose nuzzled deeper into Keith’s neck. Keith could feel her own heartbeat in her ears. Lance couldn’t too, could she? 

Keith didn’t know what came over her. Maybe it was still the memory of how she had kissed Lance earlier that day, or how pretty Lance had looked, of how she had quite literally not been able to keep her hands off of the girl in that grocery store. Or maybe it was of how Lance had ignored her that day, of how that had made Keith madder than anything else, because if Keith was being honest with herself almost everything she did, every order she barked, ever Biter she killed, had always been to get Lance’s attention, whether that be in her good graces or not. 

Had Lance been doing the same thing, only with humour and childish antics? 

Nonetheless, Keith forgot about everything for a minute, because all that mattered was this. As she pulled Lance in closer, Keith bent her face down to Lance’s, and began whispering, just barely audible, “it’s okay. Don’t be scared, I’m here.” 

Was this really Keith?

That was certainty the look Lance was giving her, some sort of grateful confusion. Another gastly scream echoed in the back room, as a Biter wobble around, smashing against the side of the wardrobe as it walked. Lance bit back a scream, pushing herself harder into Keith. 

Keith felt her chest cave in. Her arms felt right around Lance, and she breathed in Lance’s hair, she breathed out reassuring words, attempting to calm the girl. She didn’t care that Lance had been insabordanet. She didn’t care that Lance had pushed her aside right after they had sex. She just wanted the girl to be okay. If those walkers ended up sniffing them out, ended up scratching the doors now, Keith somehow knew that she would die before any of them got close to Lance.

The thought of dying to protect Lance didn’t even scare her. 

Pidge’s words rang in her ears, as she pondered over the phrase that you could be dying in a friend's arms just as easily as a friend could be dying in yours. 

Keith would be fine with dying in Lance’s arms, if it meant the girl was safe. However, if Lance had died in Keith’s? That would be game over for her, and she didn’t quite know why. 

‘She likes you. Duh.’ She heard Pidge’s voice in the back of her mind. God, she hoped that was true. 

She shouldn’t have been such a cocky ass to Lance. How bad Keith had felt when Lance had given her the cold shoulder after their backroom sex… she had never felt so rejected. So let down. Like she was nothing. Only Lance had that power over her, and Keith wondered if Lance had felt that same way, after all of the time’s Keith had been cold, mean to her after their late night visits. She didn’t think that she had that power over Lance. She had always just assumed her actions had no consequences. 

“You’re okay,” she heard herself whispering. “I’m here, they’ll clear out. I’m here.” Keith drew soft circles into Lance’s back as she spoke, and suddenly, Lance was shivering for a different reason. 

“Unsa ka mangahas ka, Kogane.” Lance mumbled softly into Keith’s skin, and Keith just realized the girl was crying soft tears. Lance’s delicate voice muttering in a language Keith did not understand made the slightly taller woman shiver as well, as if the stuffy wardrobe and its stale air was suddenly the tundra. “Giunsa nimo pagpangahas nga ingon ka mabangis kaayo, unya ingon buotan. Gusto ba nimo ako o dili, init nga ulo?” She whispered, “because you’re making me crazy,” Lance light voice said, effortlessly switching languages. 

“What does that mean?” Keith whispered softly into the girl’s curly hair. 

“Wouldn't you love to know.” Lance mumbled into Keith’s chest. 

Keith sighed, making some lost strands of brown curls that framed Lance’s face rustle. 

“What were you singing earlier?” Keith asked, voice just below a whisper as more undead snarls filled the small room, coming in and out like it was a house party. 

“Fast Car,” Lance admitted, and Keith just wanted to keep her talking, because she loved the feeling of Lance’s voice, quite literally, against her, vibrating her skin like a kiss. “But in Cebuano. My mama used to sing it.” 

“It’s beautiful,” Keith comentend, and Lance felt her heart drop. Keith had always berated her on everything else. She had never wanted the girl to hear her sing for fear of what she might say. But Keith saying that her voice, her language, was beautiful? Lance shivered again beneath Keith’s finger tips. 

Keith picked up on this motion instantly, and pulled Lance tighter, closer, once more. Lance melted into the girl even more, trying not to let the memory of her mother humming the melody of Tracy Chapman while she braided her hair, complaining that she had given her daughter such a beautiful name, and yet she insisted that everyone outside of the family call her by a ‘boy’ name. “Yeah,” Lance whispered back, “it is.” 

………...

They stayed like that for a while in silence, but Keith never once stopped drawing those damn shapes into the small of Lance’s back. Lance’s breath was slow and even against the skin of Keith’s neck. 

Finally, Lance broke the quiet between them, the voices outside thinning, but not disappearing as quickly as they would have liked. “...m’sorry,” Lance mumbled. 

“Huh?” 

At the sound of a Biter, only a few feet from their hiding place, made its presence known, and Lance jumped a bit once more, squeaking out quickly, but quietly, “I shouldn't have dragged us in here. We’re trapped. Because of me.” Lance added, even quieter, “we’re gonna die because of me.” 

Keith felt sick at her words, the motion continuing even more when she felt her neck wet with Lance’s tears. 

“Lance,” Keith whispered with a new found authority, because the last thing in the world she wanted was for Lance to start believing her bullshit words. They meant nothing, her angry comments, her false allegations that she would throw around willy-nilly, assuming that nothing she had said could ever matter to someone like Lance. All that would stop right now, if they ever made it out of this freaking closet. Keith took her gloved hand, warm fingers finding their way underneath Lance’s chin, she gently drew Lance’s face from her shoulder so she was looking in those big brown eyes that Lance had the audacity to shine at her whenever she felt like it. “You saved our asses,” Keith whispered with forcefulness, and Lance was suddenly very aware of how close they were. 

“You lead us when I didn’t know what the fuck to do,” Keith said, because it was time she started listening to her teammates. “Thank you, I honestly don’t know what I would have done if we had kept running… You were right. I’m a shit leader. And if anyone tries to tell Iverson about what happened today, I’ll deny it.” 

Lance forgot how to breathe. Were these words really coming from Keith Kogane? “No te puedo leer, Kogane.” Lance whispered. 

Keith smiled faintly. “Was that Cu.. Ceban… Cubano too?” She asked, trying to get the words out. 

Lance stopped herself from laughing, instead letting out a breath that rustled Keith’s black curls and reminded her of their close proximity. “No, estúpida,” Lance smiled. “That one was spanish… did you skip high school or something?” 

“Well, yeah actually...” 

Lance scoffed a bit. “Of course you did. You never cease to surprise me.” 

Keith drew a thumb over Lance’s cheek, soft and brown, no longer streaked with tears, so she had no excuse to be doing it other than that she wanted to. “Ditto.”

Lance shamelessly leaned her face into Keith’s hand. “Keith…” She breathed, footsteps still filling the room around them. Thankfully, no Newly Deads. If there had been, they wouldn’t be alive right now. “You can’t keep doing this…” Lance whispered, though Keith noticed the break in her voice. “Love me or hate me, Kogane, because I can’t keep doing both.” 

Keith smiled a bit, grip never loosening on the girl. “I never hated you.” 

“Liar,” Lance bit. 

“I just didn’t know what to do with you,” Keith admitted. 

Lance breathed out a bit, bowing her head a bit in Keith’s grasp. “I don’t know what to do with me either,” she admitted, dipping her head back into Keith’s shoulder. 

Fuck. “T-that’s not what I… I didn’t mean it in a bad way-” Keith spluttered, another angry voice from outside scratching infected nails across the wood of the wardrobe and forcing both women silent again. Lance hissed to herself at this noise, and without missing a beat, Keith tightened her grip around Lance, feeling her way up and down the soft fabric of Lance’s blue shirt, drawing shapes into the girls spin and whispering sweet things whenever the girl jumped. 

They stayed like this until dark. 

………… 

Finally, after hours of stale air and words exchanged that Lance wasn’t sure if she could believe, the voices became thin enough that the pair decided they could make a run for it. 

The Biters had crawled in from a window not boarded up. There was no door open for them to leave. They had either crawled back out, or had hidden themself in the store as the sun went down. 

They could only pray that, with literally no other options, they could make fun for it. “Ready?” Keith whispered, drawing her knife from her side pocket of her dark jeans. 

Lance glanced up at her, easing the safety off of her blue pistol. She nodded at the girl. “Ready, Head. I’ll follow your lead.” Lance promised, and Keith felt something swell in her chest, something that felt like respect. Something she had not felt from any of her teammates. Perhaps now, she had earned it. 

Keith nodded at her, slowly easing the door open. A slow creek filled the quiet room. 

All was quiet, for a single second, before an open mouth with yellow, bloody teeth and a horrible, swishing tongue could scream at them from the crack of the wardrobe door. Lance bit back a scream, as did Keith, as Keith silently plunged her hunting knife into the soft skull of the person, kicking them off as she opened the door fully. 

Keith hoped out of their hiding place, scanning the room quickly and seeing nothing. 

Side by side in complete silence, Keith and Lance walked out of the back room and into the main store. The open window where the Biters had been swarming hours earlier was completely empty, and the broken window revealed a quiet street. Though, off in the distance, Keith saw a churning sea of bodies, all swarming in the middle of the town like they were awaiting a fucking town meeting. 

But, they were away from the store, at least for now. Take what you can get, I guess. 

Two bodies came charging immediately, and Lance shot them down, both straight head shots. Keith gave the girl an impressed look. She had yet to ever see Lance miss. 

“Pidge!” Lance barked over towards the drum, dodging another Biter, and shouldering it into Keith’s path where the girl easily jabbed a knife into its brain. 

Pidge popped out of the drum like a jack in the box, “I’m here!” she called over, and Keith noticed how Lance immediately looked less terrified. 

Pidge fired out three shots, two missing before the last one landed in the eyeball of a blond woman barrling at them. Lance swung an arm around Pidge’s waist and hosted her up, swinging her out of the drum. 

“We gotta bored up the window!” Keith barked from across the store. Though she was surrounded by bodies, she didn’t even look nervous, and barely broke a sweat as she effortlessly swung her knife around, dropping bodies like a trained assassin. 

“The counter!” Pidge hissed, gesturing to the check out with the dusty till still sitting a top. Keith nodded, dropping the last screaming, falling beast before grabbing one end of it. The shots were beginning to attract the attention of some of the Biters in the crowd a few streets down, a few dozen swarming towards an open window like moths to a flame.

“Lance!” Keith yelled, but she was already running over. 

“On it,” she called back, picking up the other half. Pidge helped her, flipping the wooden table and pushing it on its end, six feet high, enough to reach the window.

“Pidge, get the piano,” Lance hissed through clenched teeth as they hoisted it up.

Pidge wordlessly darted across the store. Lance nodded for Keith to follow her. She looked hesitant, but went, while Lance pressed herself to the furniture. The Biters reached the window just as they got it covered, the angry hands from the window threatening to tip it over, right on top of Lance, and she pressed herself as hard as she could against it. 

Grunting, she channelled all of her strength into pushing the oak check-out counter further against the wall as countless screaming bodies tried to push past it, their next meal only steps away.

“Hurry!” Lance growled as she began to lose her footing, sliding backwards with the counter. 

Just when she needed it, she felt a strong hand on her lower back. “Sorry,” Keith said, “I’m here,” she said, pulling her out of the way as Pidge pushed the instrument against the till, stabilizing it. 

The barricade barley, just barely held, shaking angrily. Plus, now with the piano across the store, leaving the front door vulnerable. 

“I give this duct tape fix five minutes to hold,” Pidge observed, pushing up her large glasses that held no frames. “Tops.”

“Then let’s get the fuck out of here,” Keith huffed. 

Lance rolled her eyes, “great observation, Head. Would you like to take the front door or the back?” Lance said, gesturing to the surrounded store.

Keith glared at her, “shut up and trust me, Princess.” She bit, using the nickname she knew Lance couldn’t stand. Grabbing Lance’s wrist tight, because she wasn’t going to lose her again, she pulled her towards the back room, nodding at Pidge as she did so. “Come on,” she growled, pulling her. 

Keith kicked open the door, and they could hear the scratching of the hardwood from where their barricade was falling. “The roof,” Keith explained, and Lance wasn’t quite sure why she hadn't yet pulled her arm away from Keith’s grip. For some reason, she didn’t want to. They were literally surrounded, split up, outnumbered, and utterly screwed, but Keith’s tight grip on her skin somehow calmed her in this impossible scenario. “I saw a ladder back here before we hid,” Keith explained, slamming the door shut behind them. 

“There!” Pidge pointed, jogging over and dragging the heavy wardrobe away from the wall to reveal the metal ladder, each peg coated in an inch of dust.

“Yes!” Keith smiled, “good eye, Pidge!” 

Pidge began scaling the ladder, Keith pushing Lance towards it. “Heads go last,”  
she said when she saw Lance was about to argue. 

She sighed, “guess I shouldn’t disobey two orders, huh?” she smirked as she began climbing. 

“Shut up,” Keith snapped, biting her lip to keep from smiling.

With a heave, Pidge nudged the door to the roof open, gaping in the fresh air that poured over them as the three spilled out of the opening, and onto the hot cement of the roof, just beginning to cool in the night air.

Breathing heavily, Keith closed the door behind them before collapsing in between Pidge and Lance, breathing in the fresh air after being trapped in the stuffy store for hours on end, the adrenaline of just taking on a small army and escaping immediate death wearing off as they huffed against the roof. 

“Everyone all right?” Keith asked her team. 

Before anyone could answer, she was met with her favourite sound in the world, however unexpected it was. Lance began laughing, small at first, until she was all out cackling, rolling over and propping herself up on her elbow to look at Keith, her bouncy laughter never wavering. 

“What the hell is so funny?” Keith asked, and found her tone of course more harsh then she meant, but how dare Lance make her blush when she least expected it. 

“H-How the hell did we survive that?” Lance snorted, letting her face fall into Keith's shoulder as another burst of giggles took over her. 

Keith felt her face heat even further, her heart caught in her throat because of course Lance would be laughing right now! Though, Keith didn’t find herself pushing Lance off like she normally would. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Lance from where she was still laying against the roof and dragged on top of her in an all-too-tight hug, furthering the girl's hysterical laughter. 

Keith found herself laughing too, as she did this, holding her head back and bellowing out the type of laughter only Lance could invoke. “I have no fucking clue,” Keith chuckled, Pidge snickering next to them.

Suddenly the smaller girl toppled on top of Lance and Keith’s little dog pile. Pidge’s eighty pounds surprised them more than anything, as they felt the air squished out of their lungs. “Pidge!” Lance screeched. 

“We’re alive!” Pidge sang as she flopped on top of her friends.

“Yeah, well we won’t be if we keep shouting like this!” Keith smiled, happy her tone matched her feelings. She had trouble with that most days. She wiggled herself out from underneath the two laughing women, standing for the first time since being on the roof, taking in the view of the town. 

And oh boy was Lance right! Heads, upon heads, upon heads of the undead roaming around as if the town were having a fucking parade. They fell over one another like a sea. From the rooftop they could see the sun almost completely disappearing over the horizon, one small stretch of sun still existing on the sidewalk. 

Keith ducked down, hiding herself with the short wall that boarded the rooftop. “What the hell, Pidge?” Keith hissed, the smile immediately falling off of the girl as she crawled over to her, Lance following. “I thought you said these things could be gone with the sun!” 

“They will be!” Pidge argued, though she bit her lip as she said it, peering over the ledge. “Just watch!” she insisted. 

Huddled on the roof, the three, shoulder to shoulder, wordlessly watched as the second the sun had completely vanished over the horizon, the seas of undead disappeared into stores, up fire escapes, into suburban homes and underneath gazebos and front porches. With military-like precision, as if they were afraid of the dark, as if the fucking apoloclyse had never happened, they vanahsed in no more than three minuets flat. 

“Holy fuck…” Lance breathed, barely able to comprehend what the hell they just watched.

“Can’t believe that worked…” Pidge admitted, wide eyed. 

There was another beat of terrified, awed silence before Keith bumped her shoulder against Pidge’s, her dark eyes never once leaving the empty streets. “Pidge, I want a full report on whatever the hell we just witnessed on Iverson’s desk the second we get back to The Garrison.” 

Pidge smiled wildly, “with all of my scientific findings on them evolving?” she asked hopefully. 

“Go nuts, Darwin.” Keith smiled, unprepared for the tight hug Pidge threw at her. “Okay, okay,” she said, prying the kid off of her. “That’s enough physical contact for one day.” 

Lance snickered at this, “what now, Captain’?” she asked with a little mock-salute. 

Keith looked at her seriously. “How fast can you run?” 

…………… 

The three scaled down the fire escape. At Keith’s orders, they ran down the middle of the street, far away from any windows, doors, or porches. They ran in complete silence and complete darkness, weapons drawn and adrenaline high. 

The only sound was their boots against the pavement, and their heavy breath as they sprinted to the treeline of the forest. It was further then they thought, and as they ran it rang truer and truer that if they had tried to make a run for it when Keith had wanted to, they would have been dead. 

Finally, when their boots went from the street and were met with the soft bed of the forest floor, Keith barked up at Lance from where she stood behind the group, “don’t stop, keep running.” 

The only sound was Pidge calling up a direction to Lance every now and then, trying to find their way back to where they had made camp the previous night. If it hadn't been for Pidge and her damn maps, they wouldn’t have had a chance at finding Hunk and Shiro in the dark woods. 

Keith found herself valuing her teammates now more than ever, and it felt great, not resenting everyone all the time, not feeling like they were holding her back, slowing her down. Keith even heard herself saying, “good work, Voltron!” and she could literally feel Lance smiling. 

Finally, they saw the rocks in the distance, the full moon being their only light. 

That’s when they head it, the cocking of a gun. Lance could recognize the sound of someone easing the safety off their gun from a mile away.

Lance skidded to a stop and yelled out, “Voltron!” just before Shiro could pull the trigger. 

Suddenly they were blinded with the bright light of Hunk’s flashlight, the sweet boy's voice ringing a desperate, “oh thank god!” before he wrapped Lance and Pidge into a bear hug. 

Keith smirked, taken aback when she felt Shiro’s one, strong arm wrap her up in one of their first hugs since she was a kid. “Fuck, kid, you scared me.” He breathed, sounded older than his years, and Keith felt her eyes water in her brother's embrace because damn, she didn’t realize how scared she was until right now. 

She hugged him back, tight and sincere. “What? Don’t trust me?” she teased. 

“We thought you were Runners,” Shiro said to the team when him and Keith finally pulled away. “Lance, if you hadn't have screamed our name, I would have shot,” Shiro grimaced.

“Yeah, Lance is pretty good at saving our lives,” Keith smiled. Lance felt a kind of pride well up in her chest that she had not felt in a long time. The kind of pride she hasn't felt since her Papa had come to her debate tournament in high school, and watched his baby girl wipe the floor with some prep school kids debating against medicare, in front of an auditorium full of people. Her Papa had had her entire team over that night for supper, and even got her Mama to make a cake to celebrate their win. 

Lance had never thought she would feel that feeling again, that feeling deep inside her chest that only someone whose opinion you really cared about could bring out of you. 

Lance beamed at her, before her grin turned to that of something mischievous. “So you admit to liking the name?” 

Keith laughed a bit, shoving Lance lightly. “Whatever, Padawan.” 

“It’s paladin!” Lance shouted back, the rest of the team laughing. 

Only Keith could piss her off like that. 

Oh god… she was in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AM I sitting in a coffee shop wearing a homemade Lance McClain jacket whilst writing my gender-bent Klance fanfiction? Why yes. Yes I am.  
> Ultimate nerd status achieved.


End file.
